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The MAKERS of MAINE 

ESSAYS and TALES of EARLY 
MAINE HISTORY, FROM the 
FIRST EXPLORATIONS to the 
FALL of LOUISBERG, IN- 
CLUDING the STORY of the 
NORSE EXPEDITIONS. 




BY 

Herbert Edgar Holmes^ LL. B. 



STATE LIBRARIAN OF MAINE 



THE HASWELL PRESS, Publishers 

LEWISTON, MAINE 

1912 



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TO THE 

RIGHT REVEREND LOUIS S. WALSH, D. D. 

BISHOP OF PORTLAND 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED IN RECOGNITION 

OF HIS EFFORTS 

IN BEHALF OF THE GREAT HISTORY 

OF OUR 

STATE OF MAINE 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I. 

Maine's Position in History. 9 

CHAPTER n. 

The Sons of Eric. 17 

CHAPTER HI. 

The Viking and the Catholic Church. 23 

CHAPTER IV. 

The First Expedition of the French. 33 

CHAPTER V. 

The Port Royal Expedition. 44 

CHAPTER VI. 

Marc Lescarbot. — His Character and Writings. 50 

CHAPTER VII. 

The First French and Indian Alliance. 57 

CHAPTER VIII. 

De Poutrincourt and Lescarbot Leave 

Acadia and Return to France. 65 

CHAPTER IX. 

Biard and Masse Are Chosen from 

Jesuit Volunteers to Go to Acadia. 70 

CHAPTER X. 

How the Jesuit Relations Came to be 

Written and Their Historical Value. 74 

CHAPTER XI. 

Father Biard Describes His Voyage 

across the Atlantic. 80 

CHAPTER XII. 

Various Historical Authorities Compared. 89 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Troubles and Disputes at Port Royal. 101 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Death of the Sagamore Membertou. 105 

CHAPTER XV. 

The First Mass Said in Maine. 110 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Argall Outrage. 118 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Jesuits Are Carried to Virginia 

and England. 129 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Miracles in Maine. 133 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Waymouth's Voyage. — He Captures 

Some Indians. 138 

CHAPTER XX. 

Strange Ill-Luck Pursues the English 

Efforts to Colonize Maine. 146 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Ferdinado Gorges Become Lord of Maine. 153 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Some Interesting Laws and Prosecutions. 160 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The First Deed from an Indian Chief and Herein 
Concerning Our Titles to Our Lands. 166 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Conduct of the English Towards the Indians 

as Proven from English History. 173 

CHAPTER XXV. 

England's Title to Maine Obtained by 

Treachery and Maintained by Violence. 180 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

An Eloquent Indian Chief. 185 

CHAPTER XXVII. 



The Civil War Between De La Tour and 

Aulnay Charnisay, 190 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Interesting but Little Known History 

of the Capuchin Missions in Maine. 197 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

The Famous Mission to the Abenakis 

Indians. 201 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Father Druillettes' Diplomatic Mission 

to Boston. 204 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Romantic History of Father Sebastian 

Rale, S. J. 208 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

The Relentless Persecution of Father 

Rale by the English. 214 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Father Rale's Influence Upon the Indians. 221 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Death of Father Rale. — Two Widely 

Different Accounts. 226 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Some Reflections LTpon the Cause and 

Effects in History. 235 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Fall of Louisberg and the Part 

Taken Therein by the Men of Maine. 242 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Looking Backward. 247 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

First — The Abenaki Indian Scouts on their way to warn 
Father Rale of the coming of the English 
Soldiers. — Frontispiece. 

Second — The Norsemen Explore the Coast of Maine. 

Third — Portrait of Samuel de Champlain. 

Fourth— Father Biard S. J., and the French Soldiers take 
possession of Mt. Desert Island and the 
neighboring shore, and in honor of the Holy 
Redeemer name the place St. Sauveur. 

Fifth— Champlain' s Map of Port Royal, Acadia, from 
the works of Champlain published under 
the auspices of Laval University, Quebec, 
1870. 

Sixth— Father Sebastian Rale S. J., preaching the true 
faith to the Indians on the Bank of the 
Kennebec. 



Copyright, 1912 
by 
THE HASWELL PRESS 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



PREFACE 

This series of historical essays and tales of history is offered 
to the public with the hope that it may be found interesting read- 
ing, at least in parts. It is not consecutive historical narrative; 
indeed, it may appear rather disconnected; but the attempt to 
write a connected and consecutive history of Maine, or of any part 
of the history of Maine is hereby expressly disclaimed. For that 
reason it may, perhaps, be found interesting to other readers be- 
sides Maine people. The book covers a period of our history 
which is of as much interest to a Canadian, and to a Westerner 
as to the sons of Maine. For the matter of that, if it were of inter- 
est to none but sons of Maine, it would interest a very large number 
of American citizens, for the sons of Maine are to be found in every 
state in the union. The fact that it is a series of essays and tales 
may recommend it to many readers, because, on that account it 
may be read, a chapter here and a chapter there, as one chapter 
or another treats of subjects of especial interest to particular per- 
sons. 

The series of essays appeared first in the Catholic Opinion. 
a weekly published in Lewiston. It was received so kindly and 
cordially that I was tempted to rewrite the series and publish the 
same in the form of a book. I fell into the temptation, and here 
is the result. 

How it happened that I came to write these essays and tales 
in the first place is this: I had always felt a bit of exasperation 
every time I read, in the work of one or another historian, a slur, 
a sneer, or an abusive statement about the French missionaries 
and especially the Jesuits, who have done so much for the cause 
of religion and civilization. Some historians, (we need not men- 
tion their names) are openly hostile to the Jesuits, frankly opposed 
to taking any view of our earlj' history which would be creditable 
to the Catholic Church and her missionaries. Although I have 
not mentioned the names of any of these j'et, lest I may be charged 
with drawing on my imagination or of being prejudiced myself 
I will refer the reader, for corroboration, to certain volumes of the 



PREFACE 

Maine Historical Society Collections, and to a certain, well known 
history of Nova Scotia. 

Other historians again, like Francis Parkman and John Fiske 
(and I count Parkman the chief exponent of this class) give great 
credit and high praise, enthusiastic praise, to the Jesuits, whenever 
contemplation of the deeds of the Jesuits seems to fire their imagi- 
nation, but on the other hand, as if by way of compensation, we 
find them every now and then taking a sly dig at "the crafty and 
unscrupulous Jesuit," almost as if they were forced to do it as an 
act of homage to their native, in-bred prejudice and hostility to 
the Catholic Church. 

This characterization of the historians does not apply, of 
course, to those who have written in the French language, Cana- 
dians mostly, concerning the history of New France, which neces- 
sarily includes the early history of our State of Maine. Nor would 
it be expected to apply to such admirable historians as John Gil- 
mary Shea, translator of Father Charlevoix's "History of New 
France," and Father Campbell of the Society of Jesus who has 
published a history of the Jesuits in North America. 

What we Catholics object to, and what I have in mind, is 
such false history, and false deductions from historical facts as 
we find in "popular history," the kind of history taught to the 
public school children, and even in the collections of the Maine 
Historical Society in such articles of the Collections as that of 
J. Wingate Thornton. It is a pleasure to be able to say, however, 
that now and then a non-Catholic writer has had the courage to 
speak the truth about the Jesuit missionaries and the position 
of the Catholic Church in the early history of Maine. Such a 
man is the Hon. John F. Sprague of Dover, Maine, author of the 
little history of the Jesuit mission to the Indians at Norridgewock 
in which he tells the story of the life and death of the great and 
good Father Sebastian Rale, S. J., who is at last coming into his- 
own true position in history. This historian, Mr. Sprague, de- 
serves much credit, not only for his broadminded view of history 
but for his sympathetic understanding and enthusiasm for the 
great and romantic history of our State. An address of his, deliv- 
ered before the Bangor Historical Society March 4, 1912, deserves 
to be preserved. A few of his words in this address, which I con- 
sider to be gems of historical statement, I will quote, if for no other 
purpose than to impress upon my reader that here in" the early 
history of Maine is a great field of romantic history as yet little 
cultivated. "And peering through the mists of the past centuries 



PREFACE 

of American history we see them {the Jesuit missionaries) here on 
the Penobscot, this advance guard of civilization, so strange and 
remarkable, pioneers so unlike any that had gone before thera. 
By the side of the soldier with sword and musket that France 
had sent to subdue a new world and erect the New France, marched 
these fearless defenders of the faith with crucifix and prayer-book 
full of the burning fires of pious zeal and a grim determination to 
rescue from the bonds of Satan a whole continent of savages." 

And again, another quotation from this address, as it expresses 
a point of historical fact which I have made much of in the course 
of these essays: "That piece of the new world, which Charles I 
gave to Ferdinando Gorges, and which the Massachusetts colony 
subsequently purchased, was bounded on the east by the Kennebec 
River, and all that territory between the Kennebec River and the 
St. Croix was originally a part of ancient Acadia. After Massachu- 
setts purchased it, however, theoretically, and from her point of 
view, Penobscot River was the east line and later on it was exten- 
ded to the St. Croix; but these contentions of the colony wereal- 
ways strenuously resisted by the governors of New France, even 
after the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. So ours was ever disputed 
territory. These controversies were the cause of many of the 
Indian wars throughout the Province of Maine, for the Indians 
were as a rule loyal to the French. For several years after the 
treaty, that wonderful character in the colonial history of Maine, 
Sebastian Rale, from his mission at Norridgewock, with a bravery 
and determination seldom equalled, continued his adherence to the 
Acadian rights of New France to this territory. But in 1724 Mas- 
sachusetts decided to end it all by killing Rale and his devoted 
Indian followers, and burning up his mission. 

All of this story of these territorial contentions, which affected 
eastern Maine as well as the whole colony of Massachusetts is 
teeming with historical facts, which have too long remained buried 
in the debris of receding time." 

Many more words I would like to quote from this address 
but it is not necessary, for I believe that from the foregoing, I ha\e 
shown that at least one broad-minded non-Catholic historian has 
the true appreciation of the grand history of this portion of our 
American soil. And perhaps I have shown, further, that the ex- 
cuse and justification for my essays and tales of early Maine history 
is, to borrow the quotation employed by Mr. Sprague in his 
address, — "The harvest is plentiful, the laborers few." 

It goes without saying that no one can write history, except 



PREFACE 

he be chronicling contemporaneous events, if that can be called 
writing history, without quoting from some prior historical writing 
which he considers authority. And it is in this quoting, and in 
the deducing from the quotation, that we find and apply the true 
test of the worth of the writings. If a writer will not take 
the trouble to find and quote from the original and best authority 
or will not faithfully and honestly deduce the facts from the origi- 
nal authority, then he fails himself to be authority to his readers. 

Knowing this well, I have endeavored throughout these 
essays to quote only from the original sources of history, except, 
of course, where I have quoted from others than the originals mere- 
ly for the purpose of comparison or criticism. For the doings 
of the Jesuits I have quoted from the Jesuit Relations. I con- 
sider them the best and only authority upon the question of the 
acts of the Jesuits. And moreover, I do not understand how any 
fair-minded man can read those Relations without being absolutely 
convinced of the truth of every word written in them. Yet, as 
I have said before, many respected historians have utterly disre- 
garded the authority of the Jesuit Relations in writing the history 
of this period, and have traversed and contradicted the statements 
of the Jesuit Fathers in their Relations, without any authority 
for so doing, except their own presumptuous disbelief. 

Most writers of history follow the practise of citing their au- 
thority for their various statements in foot-notes at the bottom of 
the page I have preferred to reject that method entirely partly 
because this book is not a history, as I have said, but chiefly be- 
cause I think it makes it easier for the reader to learn the author's 
authority in the course of the text instead of having to continually 
drop the text to refer to a foot-note. 

When I first wrote the essays as a series of articles for the 
Catholic Opinion, I did not have access to the edition of the Jesuit 
Relations which combines the original with the English translation, 
the edition edited by Dr. Thwaites of Wisconsin. I had only 

the three volume edition in French published in 1858 at Quebec 
by authority of the Canadian government. This is a ver>' useful 
edition, and is prized by historians, not only for its scholarship, 
but also for the fact that it is becomingalmost as rare and scarce as 
the original Cromoisy edition of which it was intended to be a 
reprint. Afterwards, when I was revising and rewriting the series 
for publication as a book, I was able to get access to the Thwaites 
edition and was thus enabled to compare and correct my own 
translations with the translations made by the editors of this great 



PREFACE 

edition. I have also amplified my original quotations from the 
Quebec edition of the Relations by quotations from the English 
translations in the Thwaites edition. Following my rule not to 
make use of foot-notes, I have not given credit to the Thwaites 
edition for quotations in the course of the book; but I wish now to 
express my indebtedness to this monumental and scholarly edition 
for the great help that I have derived from it, especially in my 
rewriting and revising of the original articles. 

All historians, and particularly all who appreciate and admire 
the Jesuit missionaries and their achievements, will owe a debt of 
gratitude for many years to come to the learned, able and cons- 
cientious editors of this scholarly work. 

There are several editions of Champlain's Voyages both in 
French and in English, the one which I have used and quoted from 
is the French edition published in Quebec in the year 1870, by La- 
val University. 

For the historical writings of Marc Lescarbot, without which 
any writer of the history of this period would be sadly handicapped 
I was singularly fortunate. It happened that at the time when I 
was revising the articles for publication, the Champlain Society 
of Toronto was issuing, among other historical works, Lescarbot 's 
"Histoire de la Nouvelle France" with both an English translation 
and the original French text. Only two volumes of Lescarbot 
had been published, but they brought his history down to the 
close of the Port Royal expedition and settlement in which he him- 
self had been an actor and participant. Therefore for all my quota- 
tions from Lescarbot's History of New France I am indebted to 
the Champlain Society, and I hereby acknowledge my debv with 
gratitude and pleasure. 

The few quotations that I have made from the writmgs of the 
Rev. Fr. Charlevoix S. J., have been taken from John Gilmary 
Shea's fine edition of Charlevoix, but I have compared them with 
the French edition published in Paris in the year 1744, more from 
curiosity than otherwise, for no one will find any errors in Shea's 
translation. 

In various places I have quoted from the writings of John 
Fiske, from Hannay's History of Nova Scotia, W lliamson's His- 
tory of Maine, the Collections of the Maine Historical Society, and 
one or two other historians, but usually for comparison with the 
original historical authorities, to show how those writers have de- 
duced conclusions from historical facts different from what I 'be- 
lieve the facts warrant. 



PREFACE 

The material for the first few chapters which treat of the "voy- 
ages and discoveries of the Norsemen, is to be found in the Norse 
Discovery of America, publishes by the Norroena Society. Like- 
wise, the English translation of the Letter of Pope Alexander VI 
is from the Flatey Book of the Norroena Society. 

The quotations from Waymouth's Voyages are, of course 
from Rozier's Narrative, and like the other material dealing with 
the English voyages and settlements are easily accessible in many 
different publications. 

In conclusion, I will say that, even with all the historical writ- 
ings that have been published, the field of history comprised in 
the period from the first explorations down to the final change of 
sovereignty from France to England, and more, down to the Revo- 
lution, is a very fertile field, as yet but imperfectly cultivated. 
It i s such an interesting and romantic period of our history, the 
facts of history are so interrelated and intertwined with the events 
which go to make the history of the other original colonies, of Can- 
ada, of the Great West, that there is plenty of room, and much 
need, for work, for research, and for writing. 

There are so many strange and interesting events, and strange 
and interesting characters, and so little has been written about 
them. There is Ferdinando Gorges' feudal fief of Maine; there are 
the voyages of Captain John Smith which ended so disastrously 
each time. There is the romantic story of Claude and Charles 
de la Tour, and the civil war waged for years between the younger 
de la Tour and Aulney de Charnisay, like two barons of the Middle 
Ages. And there is the story of the Castins, father and son, for 
whom the town of Castine is named. On the religious side, there 
is the Capuchin mission on the Penobscot and the Kennebec, about 
which so little is yet known. 

And finally, speaking of the religious side of our history, we 
come back to what I began with, — the great history of the Catholic 
Church in those days, the great work of the missionary priests for 
the Indians which is still to be seen to-day, for such an anomoly 
as a Protestant Indian in Maine is unheard of. This history has 
been so much misrepresented and misunderstood for these many 
years, until now, of late years, a better knowledge, a clearer light, 
has come, and those great missionaries, and Druillettes, the 
Bigots, F'ather Rale, have at last come into their own, and are 
receiving a belated, but to make up, an enthusiastic credit from 
Protestant writers. Protestant writers perceive and admit that 
in the history of that period the Catholic Church and its mission- 



PREFACE 

aries are bound up uith the best of history, and not the worst, as 
used to be taught. 

I hope that this contribution to history' may help to arouse 
and keep alive an interest in and a love for the great and romantic 
story of the early days of our beloved state, and the equally 
romantic story of our beloved Church in those days. I know 
my own limitations as a writer, and the limitations and weak- 
nesses of this series of essays and tales of history. It is with 
trepidation that I offer it to the public. If I were intending it 
it as a serious history', to be subjected to the critical scrutiny of 
historical scholars, I would not at all dare to send it forth. But 
as it is not intended as an end in itself, — a history, but only as a 
means to an end, the arousing of interest in history, I do not fear 
so much. I hope it will be received kindly by true scholars and his- 
torians, and that all who read it may find at least one chapter in it 
which will prove interesting reading. My pride in and my loyalty 
to the State of Maine, and my pride in and loyalty to the Cath- 
olic Church with its great history, of which the history of the early 
days of Maine is only one chapter, is at once my excuse for its 
weaknesses, and my justification for sending it forth with its 
weaknesses, and in spite of its weaknesses. 

To the Knights of Columbus, and to the members of the 
Maine Catholic Historical Society, who have helped me with en- 
couragement and with subscriptions to the volume, and to all oth- 
ers who have helped in like manner, especially the members of the 
Bar of Maine, I here tender my sincerest thanks. 

THE AUTHOR. 
At the State Library, 
Augusta, Maine, 
this second day of 
December A. D. 1912. 



"On the brow of the hill that slopes '.o meet 

The flowing river and bathe its feet, 
The bare washed rock, and the drooping grass, 

And .he creeping vine, as the waters pass; 
A rude and unshapely chapel stands, 

Built up in that wild by unskilled hands, 
Yet the traveller knows it a house of prayer, 

For the sign of the holy cross is there. 
And should he chance at that place to be. 

Of a sabbath morn or some hallowed day, 
When prayers are made and Masses said 

Some for the living, and some for the dead. 
Well might that traveller start to see 

Tall dark forms that take their way 
From the birch canoe on the river shore 

And the forest paths, to that chapel door. 
Marvel to mark the naked knees. 

And the dusky foreheads bending there. 
While in course white vesture over these. 

In blessing or in prayer. 
Stretching abroad his thin, pale hands. 

Like a shrouded ghost, the Jesuit stands." 

— Whitlier 



CHAPTER I 
MAINE'S POSITION IN HISTORY 

This State of Maine. This land of the whispering 
pines. This land of beautiful scenery, with its forests 
of mystery, with its romantic history which so few 
know, and so few have the sympathetic interest to 
understand. 

People of Maine travel to other countries in search 
of scenery. They go to Norway to see fiords. The 
coast of Maine has its own fiords as beautiful and 
majestic. They go to Switzerland for mountains and 
lakes. The lakes and mountains of Maine are in every 
respect as grand and inspiring. They travel to the west 
and the Canadian northwest in search of primeval 
wildernesses. In Maine there are vast forests, in many 
of which the whole territory' of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts could be set down, and it would require 
the aid of a guide to find the borders of Massachusetts. 

It was not so with the adventurous knights errant 
of the ocean in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
They were greatly attracted by these shores. Let us 
quote the following passage from De Puyster's "Dutch 
in Maine," — "How few are alive to the glorious and 
varied beauty of that zone of islands which commencing 
with the perfection of Casco Bay, terminates with the 
precipitous seal-frequented shores of Grand Manan. 
Of all the archipelagoes sung by the poet, described by 
the historian, and depicted by the painter, there is 
none which can exceed in its union of charms these 



10 The Makers of Maine 

two hundred miles of intermingling land and ocean, 
where lost in each other's embrace, the sea seems in 
love with the land and the shore with the foam crested 
waves." 

Rosier, historian of Weymouth's voyages (1605), 
gives the following comments on a river explored by 
Weymouth, formerly supposed to be the Penobscot, 
but now thought to be the Kennebec from what is now 
Popham Beach to Merrymeeting Bay. (Maine His- 
torical Coll.) "As we passed with a gentle wind up 
with our ship in this river, any man may conceive 
with what admiration we all consented in joy. Many 
of our company who had been travellers in sundry 
countries, and in most famous rivers, yet affirmed 
them not comparable to this they now beheld. Some 
that were with Sir Walter Raleigh in his voyage to 
Guiana, in the discovery of the River Oronoque, which 
echoed fame to the world's ears, gave reasons why it 
was not to be compared to this, which wanteth the 
dangers of many shoals, and broken ground, wherewith 
that was incumbered. Others before that notable 
river in the West Indies, called Rio Grande; some 
before the river of Loire, the river Seine and of Bordeaux 
in France; which although they be great and goodly 
rivers, yet it is no detraction from them to be accounted 
inferior to this." 

But it is not the purpose of this article to sing the 
praises of Maine's natural beauty. It is our purpose 
rather to call attention to some points of interest in the 
early history of Maine, to correct some false impressions 
which have been popularly held for many years, and to 
prove a theory, which will be stated later. 

It is unfortunately true that few even among 
Maine people have any clear idea of the important 
and interesting position which the history of this portion 



MAINE'S POSITION IN HISTORY 11 

of the country called Maine should occupy from the 
time of the first explorations down to the time of the fall 
of Quebec. It is also greatly to be deplored that the 
history of the doings of the Jesuit missionaries and the 
activities of the French and the Indians have been 
consistently misrepresented in most historical writings, 
especially in popular and public school histories. 

The writer was lately making some inquiries as 
to what course of Maine history was taught to the 
children in the public schools and he was informed by 
a young lady connected with the schools that the teach- 
ing of Maine history occupied a very unimportant 
position because the history of Maine was subordinate 
to that of Massachusetts "as Massachusetts was settled 
first, you know." Oh, "Clio, Muse of History," turn 
away your face in shame, — or rather hide your inex- 
tinguishable laughter behind your lace handkerchief. 
Can it be that that fossilized falsehood is still stalking 
at large through the public schools of Maine? 

But we can gather fresh faith and hope and courage 
when we reflect that more than half of the works which 
masquerade under the name of history, purporting to 
speak with the voice of authority, pretending to teach 
the inquiring mind the truths of the past, cannot right- 
fully be dignified even by the title of historical romance. 
For the romancer has a literary license to distort the 
facts of history in a reasonable manner to suit the needs 
of his plot, but many a writer of history has distorted 
the facts to suit the needs of his argument. Sometimes 
the cause is to be found in a state of mind which renders 
him temperamentally unfitted to be an historian; but 
often the historian is guilty of wilful misstatement 
of facts. 

Much of written history is not history at all. And 
the pity of it is that school children learn a great deal 



12 The Makers of Maine 

of such history, which it takes them years to unlearn 
after they have completed their courses in the schools. 
Moreover it is doubtless true that the great majority 
of the graduates of the American public schools have 
neither the time nor the inclination in later years to 
examine what they have learned of history and to correct 
the wrong ideas which they have absorbed from false 
historians and superficially informed public school 
teachers. That this is a matter of special concern 
to the Catholic people of the United States is plain 
when we consider that the vast majority of the Catholic 
children are still being educated in the public schools, 
and probably must continue to be for many years to 
come. Although the growth of the Catholic schools 
in this country has been phenomenal, yet it cannot 
keep pace with the growth of the Catholic population. 
It is a matter of wonder to the student of history 
that the plain facts of the early history of Maine have 
been ignored by responsible writers. How many 
school children can tell us, — no, let us leave the children 
out of the discussion for the moment, — how many 
public school teachers can tell us that the first incorpo- 
rated city in America was the city of Georgiana, founded 
on the site of the present town of York? Ask such a 
question to the average teacher, and it is a safe wager 
that her thoughts will drift in the direction of St. Au- 
gustine, Florida. Where will you find it told in public 
school history that Maine was once a County Palatine, 
and is the only portion of American soil ever held by 
a purely feudal tenure .'* 

"Massachusetts was settled first," so the writer was 
told in excuse for subordinating Maine history to Mas- 
sachusetts history in the public schools. Indeed? 
Then tell us why it was that the Pilgrims in that terrible 
winter when they were in danger of death by starvation 



MAINE^ POSmWf Df mSTOBT B 

sent a dnp dcmn to Mame to get proviaons £ram wiaite 
men who had been filing in the oei^ibariiood of the 
Kennebec for some years? Perhaps it is not of randi 
intCTest to an\x»ne bui: a lawyer, but it is an impoctaot 

and agnificanc fact that in the town of York are pre- 
serv-ed the reccrds of a court whidh sat there and adnnn- 
bt«^ the law ander die En^sh fmnmrw facv practise 
at a dme when the Massachusetts iufcj tti t»4t» had no 
courts, when the kgistatine of the Mamarhasetts colony 
called then as now the "General Coart." ailiHintstered 
the laws as well as made them. Yoa w3I find it told 
in popular histor>- thai Same®?' surprised the Fflgixms 
with the greedng. — Welcome. Er^Ehmen,** b«t pop- 
ular history- is discreeth' aknt about the face that Sann 
oset was Lord of Pemaquid and learned his Ertghsh by 
jTears of friendly intercourse with the coiociscs in Maine 
long before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts Bay. 

The labors of the Jesuit misaoaarles in Maine tor 
the advancement of d^■ilLracion ha\^ been disregarded 
and denied by partisan historians. Ittdeed they ha\-e 
been \-ililied and slandered. The injustice of Amencan 
historians to-w-ards the Catholic church and its labors 
In Maine is notorious and a crving shame. Few histx> 
rians ha\-e e\-er gi\-en any credit whate\-er to thc^e 
braw and de\-oted men: except that they cheerfuJHy 
gi\-e them the false credit of being the incitocs of the 
Indians to blood>- attacks upon the Elnglish. There 
are few of the present generation of men and women 
who recei\-ed their education in the public schools wh .: .^ 
not hold it an article of faith, as sanctified as the truiiis 
of scripture, that the French priests, crafty, calculating 
Jesuits, systematically incited the Indians to murder 
the English settlers in Maine and to bum their dwdhngs. 
Yet nothing is farther from the truth. 

That the French settlers and their prie^s had an 



14 The Makers of Maine 

influence upon the Indians, which the English had 
not and could not acquire, is beyond dispute. Nor 
is it to be wondered at when we consider the difference 
in the conduct of the English and of the French toward 
the natives. The accounts of Indian barbarities, 
of murders and burnings, narrated by the English are 
irreconcilable with the narratives of the Jesuit mission- 
aries. But the discrepancies are easily accounted for 
when the attitude of the two nations is compared. 
The policy of the French priests was conciliatory. 
The English acted upon the maxim that it was no 
sin to cheat an Indian. The French missionary treated 
the Indian as a human being with a soul to save. The 
first Englishman to discover the Kennebec A. D. 1602, 
(not the first white man), one Captain Harlow, captured 
two Indians and took them to England as a wild beast 
show. The French, on the other hand, fraternized 
with the Indians, adopted their customs, joined in 
their hunting and fishing expeditions, and treated them 
as equals to be respected. The French priests approached 
them as missionaries with that never failing insight 
which has characterized the Jesuit Order in all its 
missionary undertakings. The Indians embraced the 
Catholic faith, not so much because the ceremonies 
of the church had charms for the simple minded children 
of the forest, as prejudiced writers would have us believe, 
but because the Jesuit priests were possessed of the 
true missionary zeal and instinct, and in addition 
exhibited broad minded common sense in approaching 
the Indians with the truths of Christianity. 

The foregoing statements are an outline which 
it is the intention of the writer to develop in detail 
and by logical steps later on. History is not a collec- 
tion, a compendium of isolated facts, a chronology 
of wars, of lives and deaths of great men, of the rise and 



MAINE'S Position in History 15 

fall of peoples. It is something more, it is philosophy. 
As children, with undeveloped intelligence, with minds 
like a fresh blotter pad waiting to absorb material, 
we must learn history as a sequence of facts and a 
list of dates; but as we advance in intelligence and in- 
crease in reasoning power, it is our duty to look beneath 
the surface, to search for the reasons for things, to learn 
the philosophy of history. 

It would be natural to expect that the coast of Maine 
which first attracted so many adventurous Englishmen 
should have been the cradle of our Northern civilization. 
Here we should have looked for the seat of empire in 
the North. Here, and not upon the sterile soil of 
Massachusetts Bay should have been built the ports 
of commerce and industry. But such are not the facts. 

It is the writer's purpose to endeavor to prove that 
the punishing hand of God is to be traced, vaguely, darkly, 
but certainly, in the history of Maine; that Maine 
did not fulfil her early promise of greatness in history 
for plain and sufficient reasons, patent to him who 
will search and meditate, to be found in the doings 
of the English settlers; that the opportunity was offered 
here to the white man to give to the world an example 
of Christian charity and liberality, and it was rejected 
with selfishness and scorn. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SONS OF ERIC 

Not to Christopher Columbus, the great Genoese 
navigator, but to Leif Ericson, son of Eric the Red, 
belongs the credit and the glory of the discovery of 
America. This is not the statement of a myth, of a 
legend, but of an historical fact, too well proven to be 
even so much as disputed by students of history to-day. 
Nor is it in any way detracting from the memory of 
Columbus one whit of all the credit that is his due. 
A great society of American Catholics honors the memory 
of the Christian navigator, keeps fresh and green in 
the minds and hearts of its members the honor, the glory 
that Columbus won. It is proud of its title, — the 
"Knights of Columbus." But there is plenty of room 
for another society of Christian American gentlemen, 
named, let us say, the "Sons of Eric," to pay some 
belated credit and honor where credit and honor is sadly 
due. Nor would it be at all amiss from a Christian 
or Catholic viewpoint for such a society to be organized. 
No one can dispute that Leif Ericson and his followers 
were fully as Christian and Catholic as Columbus and 
his companions, though the gentle spirit of the knightly 
and courtly Genoese would hardly be looked for in the 
stern and warlike Vikings of the North. Their's was 
a different character. Born, living and dying on a 
cold and rockbound land, navigating a stormy, tem- 
pestuous ocean, carrying their lives in their hands 
from day to day, their character and disposition not 



The Sons of Eric 17 

unnaturally reflected the conditions and the environment 
in which they passed their lives. Wild pagans at first, 
they embraced Christianity with a readiness almost 
remarkable, and once Christianized, they never became 
apostate, but clung to their faith, — a faith of militant 
Chiistianity. 

To my mind, far from discrediting Columbus, 
it makes him a greater man, to say that America was 
discovered and settled by white men, European Chris- 
tians, long before his time. It is not to his credit to 
assume that he stumbled upon an opinion that there 
was land to the west of the ocean, and then stumbled 
upon the land. It is more creditable to the memory 
of one who was a learned man even for those days of 
scholarship that he formed his opinion in regard to land 
to the west by a chain of logical deductions based upon 
study and research. He always spoke of his conviction 
of the land to the west with as much certainty as if 
his very eyes had looked upon it. At the Rabida 
convent he gave the following reasons for his certainity, — 
first the nature of things, meaning of course the fact 
that the earth was round; second, the reports of nav- 
igators, and third the authority of learned writers. 
By the reports of navigators he could have meant 
nothing else than the facts which he learnt while on his 
journey through the northern countries where he was 
well received. We have it on the authority of his son, 
Ferdinand, that he visited Iceland; and he was in 
Iceland within 130 years from the time of the last 
Norse visit to America. He must have talked with 
many whose grandfathers knew personally of the land 
in the west. By the authority of learned men, he 
doubtless referred to the book written by Adam of 
Bremen in the year 1072. In this book much was 
written about the land to the west, called by the Norse- 



18 The Makers of Maine 

men, Vinland, the very name itself being used by Adam of 
Bremen in his book. 

This argument would be of little moment to us 
who are interested in the early history of Maine, were 
it not for the fact that the voyages of the Norsemen 
to America, almost wholly, and the settlements of the 
Norsemen in America, quite entirely, were confined 
to the territory now known as New England; and 
although we do not find as clear evidence of the footsteps 
of the Norsemen in Maine as have been found in the 
more southern New England States, yet it is incon- 
ceivable that navigators who skirted the shores of 
Labrador, New Foundland, and Nova Scotia, and 
who are positively known to have landed on the coast 
of Massachusetts Bay, it is inconceivable, that they 
sailed by the beautiful shores of Maine with averted 
eyes, that they avoided the fine harbors and landlocked 
anchorages of the coast of Maine. That we do not 
find the vestiges of their presence here is but negative 
evidence, and of no force whatever when we consider 
that they did not build substantial houses, but from the 
evidence of their own Sagas, temporary structures, 
hastily and carelessly constructed. 

Now, in order that we may have a clear idea of 
how it came about that the Norsemen discovered New 
England, let us take a view of the history of the northern 
countries in the ninth century. In that century Norway 
was divided into thirty or so districts called "fylkes," 
governed by jarls, from whom we derive our modern 
name of "earl." These rulers were in a manner elected 
by the people. In the middle of the ninth century, 
a jarl by the name of Harald Fairhair subjugated all 
the other jarls and united Norway. His usurpation 
was not popular, the northern races have never submitted 
tamely to one man power. The result was a large 



The Sons of Eric 19 

emigration to the British Isles, the Herbrides, the 
Orkneys, the Shetland Isles, the Faroes, and to Iceland. 
The more adventurous spirits went to Iceland and by 
the beginning of the next century Iceland had nearly 
100,000 population. Here the self-governing aspira- 
tions of the northern people found their fullest and 
freest development, and for four hundred years a re- 
public flourished, brave men were born and lived, and 
poets sang their deeds. This was the period of the pro- 
duction of the great Sagas, the hero worshiping poetry 
of the Norse Vikings. The Norsemen were great sailors. 
They loved the sea and no ocean was too stormy nor too 
dangerous for these Vikings to navigate. It was not 
long before they were sailing to Greenland. And let 
us remember that Greenland is admittedly within the 
western hemisphere 

Now we must make the acquaintance of a hero of 
the Sagas, of undisputed bravery but of questionable 
morality. His name was Eric the Red. In the middle 
of the tenth century he was living in Norway. He well 
deserved his name of "the Red," for besides his red hair 
and beard, he was the proud owner of the reddest dis- 
position of all the fire-eaters who ever sailed the northern 
seas. He lived in a perpetual quarrel with his neighbors 
and finally, having committed the crime of murder, he 
was forced to flee for his life. With his family he emi- 
grated to Iceland. Little time passed before he was 
again in trouble. Again he moved westward, and this 
time to the western world. To Greenland he went 
with his household. This year is an important date, 
the year 982, for it marks the first permanent settlement 
of the New World. In the year 982, therefore, Green- 
land was inhabited by a family of white men, whose 
head and chief was the progenitor of a noble race of 
adventurous spirits, who have left the prints of their 



20 The Makers of Maine 

their footsteps on the shores of New England. Eric 
the Red succeeded in founding a colony in Greenland 
which flourished for several hundred years, in fact, 
down to the time of the great "Black Plague," which 
swept Europe. The Icelandic Sagas have preserved 
for us many interesting accounts of the colony. 
We know even the number of the Bishops 
who resided in Greenland. Eric the Red had three 
sons, their names are worth remembering, — they were 
Leif Ericson, Thorvald, and Thorstein. In the year 
1000 Christianity had been adopted as the religion of 
of Norway. King Olaf Trygvason, one of the greatest 
of kings, was on the throne. In this year Leif Ericson 
had journeyed to Norway, had met King Olaf and had 
made a favorable impression on the great king. The 
king asked Leif to accept Christianity, which he did, 
and at the further persuasion of the king, he promised 
to carry the religion to his family and friends in Green- 
land. The king also commissioned him to head an ex- 
pedition to the lands in the far west, rumors of which 
had reached Norway, and Leif agreed to make a voyage 
of exploration and discovery to the west of Greenland. 
In the summer of the year 1000, a notable date in history 
surely as important as the year 1492, Leif Ericson landed 
on the wild shores of New Foundland. He explored 
the country and finding it hilly and covered with flat 
stones, he called the land Helluland, "of the flat stones." 
Sailing south he came to Nova Scotia, which he found to 
be heavily wooded. Therefore he called it Markland, 
"of the woods." Again going south, skirting the shores 
of the Gulf of Maine, he finally landed on the shore of a 
bay into which emptied a river. He sailed up the river 
crossing a lake and entering another river which he as- 
cended as far as his ships had sufficient depth of water. 
This land he called Vinland, from the presence of grapes 



The Sons Eric 21 

found in abundance there. These names given to 
New Foundland, Nova Scotia, and New England are 
important, for they remained the accepted names of 
the respective countries for 400 years, and frequently 
appear in the Sagas. 

Where is the particular spot at which Leif Ericson 
landed and with his company spent the winter of 1000- 
1001? If we knew positively we would have solved a 
problem which has worried many an historian and 
antiquarian. Probably the answer to that question 
would also clear up the mystery of the ancient city of 
Norumbega. Prof. E. N. Horsford, late of Harvard, 
claimed to have definitely located the settlement of 
Leif, and his successors, Thorvald, Thorfin and Gudrid, 
his wife, and to have unravelled the mystery of Nor- 
umbega, which he dismissed with the simple explana- 
tion that it was an Indian corruption of the word, — 
"Norvega," applied to this country by the Norsemen 
who claimed it as a part of their native country by right 
of discovery. Prof. Horsford was confident that he 
had located the Vinland settlement of the Norsemen on 
the banks of the Charles River in Massachusetts, near 
Cambridge, Cambridgeport, and Watertown. He be- 
lieved that he had everything definitely settled. But 
his explanation proves too much. In one point alone 
it seems to me that he gives scant credit to the foresight 
and experience of the Norsemen. The strongest part 
of his argument rests upon certain remains of ditches 
which he found, which, he declares, were canals dug by 
the Norsemen for the purpose of floating logs and timber 
into the Charles River and from there to be shipped 
home to Greenland. It is quite probable that the 
Norsemen shipped timber from the heavily wooded 
New England to the wood scarce Greenland, but it is 
far from probable, that men who knew how to cut tim- 



22 The Makers of Maine 

ber in the north countries in the winter season and haul 
it on the snow and ice, and pile it up for the spring 
freshets to float down the streams to the river and the 
harbor, would ever undertake the unnecessary labor 
of digging artificial canals to float the timber. The 
description of the river and harbor in Vinland contained 
in the Sagas applies to several places along the New 
England coast; but to none better than to the 
Kennebec River. And it would be strange that this 
beautiful and romantic river, which appealed so strongly 
to the Frenchmen and the Englishmen, who came along 
five and six hundred years later, should not appeal 
equally to the adventurous Norsemen. 

But speculation is vain and idle. Suffice it to say, 
that it is hardly conceivable that the Norsemen who 
spent so many years in Vinland should not have been 
as familiar with the Coast of Maine as they were with 
the Coast of Massachusetts. 

In the spring of the year 1001 Leif Ericson re- 
turned to Greenland. True to his promise to King Olaf 
he preached the doctrine of the "White Christ" to the 
Greenland colony, and with so much success that he 
converted the whole colony, save only his own father. 
That fiery old Viking, well named Eric the Red, refused 
to accept the gospel of love, and declared that he would 
die as he lived with his faith in Odin and Thor, and his 
own good right arm, unshaken. 



CHAPTER III 

The Viking and the Catholic Church 

The next voyage to New England, the Norsemen's 
"Vinland," according to the Sagas, occurred in the year 
1002, This expedition was headed by Thorvald, broth- 
er of Leif Ericson, Thorvald landed at the camp of Leif, 
but his stay was of short duration, for unfortunately he 
was killed in battle with the Indians, whom the 
Norsemen called, — "Skrellings." This is the way the 
Saga tells the story of the brave and Christian death of 
Thorvald, the first Viking and the first European Christ- 
ian to be buried in the soil of the New World. "So 
great a drowsiness came over them that they fell asleep. 
Then came a shout over them so that they all awoke. 
Thus said the shout: Wake thou, Thorvald, and all 
thy companions, if thou wilt preserve life, and return 
thou to thy ship with all thy men and leave the land 
without delay. They rushed out from the interior of 
the frith an innumerable crowd of skin boats and made 
towards them. Thorvald said then: 'We will put out 
the battle skreen, and defend ourselves as well as we 
can, but fight little against them.' So they did, and 
the skrellings shot at them for the time but afterwards 
ran away each as fast as they could. Then asked Thor- 
vald his men if they had gotten any wounds, they an- 
swered that no one was wounded. 'I have got a wound 
under my arm,' said he, 'for an arrow fled between 
the edge of the ship and the shield in under my arm, 
and here is the arrow and it will prove a mortal wound 



24 The Makers of Maine 

to me. Now I advise you that you get ready instantly 
to depart but you shall first bear me to that cape where 
I thought it best that we would live, — it was a true word 
that fell from my lips when I said that I would dwell 
there and not depart; there you shall bury me, and 
there you shall set up two crosses, one at my head and 
one at my feet, and you shall call the place Krossaness." 
And so the spot was called, "Krossaness," Mount or 
headland of the Crosses by the Norsemen for ever more. 
So died a brave and Christian gentleman, his bones have 
mingled with the soil of this New England. No man 
to-day knows where that Krossaness, the Cape of the 
Crosses is; but for all we know, it may be Cape Eliza- 
beth at the entrance of Casco Bay, or it may be any 
other one of the many beautiful promontories which 
extend out into the Atlantic from the bold and rocky 
shores of Maine, which must have reminded the Norse- 
men so much of their Fatherland, Norway, with its 
many friths. Indeed, the very use itself of the word 
"frith" in the Saga, to my mind disposes of all argu- 
ments in favor of the southern shores along Massachu- 
setts Bay, for where else but on the coast of Maine will 
you find anything approaching the scenery of the 
Scandinavian Peninsular? 

The next notable event in the settlement of our 
New England by the Norsemen is the visit of the first 
white woman, and the birth of the first white and 
Christian child. There was living at that time in Green- 
land a noble woman by the name of Gudrid. She was 
of an adventurous character, in her veins flowed the 
blood of the progenitors, — or progenetrix, of nature's 
chosen children, the unborn race of conquerors and em- 
pire builders. She married Thorfin Karlsefni. She 
persuaded him to emigrate to Vinland. They went 
accompanied by a large following. Tn the summer of 



The Viking and the Catholic Church ijs 

the year 1008 a son was born to them. They named 
him Snorce. This was the first child baptized in the 
Christian faith in New England, and indeed, in all the 
New World. After the death of her husband, Gudrid, 
following a custom of the nobility of the north in rela- 
tion to widows, made a pilgrimage to Rome. History 
relates that she attracted much attention in Rome, as 
well she might, and that she was well received. 

We know that the Holy, Roman Catholic Church 
from the very first ages of Christianity has kept in close 
touch with its children and its priests throughout the 
world. We know further that the manuscript records 
preserved in the Vatican prove beyond peradventure 
that the Roman Catholic see of Greenland included all 
the Norse settlements in the New World, — Helluland, 
Markland and Vinland. The records are preserved 
which show that at least one Catholic Bishop of Green- 
land, namely, Bishop Eric Upse, visited Vinland. No 
one who knows anything of the history of the Catholic 
Church will have the slightest doubt, from the fact 
of the visit of this bishop, that Catholic priests accom- 
panied the Norse voyagers and lived with them in Vin- 
land. The Church never left her children to shift for 
themselves without the consolation of ordained priests 
to administer the sacraments, especially the sacraments 
for the dying. It is unanswerable that a bishop would 
not make this journey unless there were priests there 
ahead of him to bla/e the path, to do the preliminary 
work. Indeed, the fact of his visit is strong presump- 
tive evidence that there were numbers of priests in resi- 
dence there. The Sagas tell us that many voyages 
were made down to the year 1347, the date of the last 
voyage, and only 145 years before the rediscovery by 
Columbus. They tell us of the daily lives of the colon- 
ists and contain full descriptions of the country. 



26 The Makers of Maine 

If I were to quote much from the Sagas to prove 
that the voyages to Vinland were numerous and that 
settlements were maintained there continuously for 
more than three hundred years, it would extend this 
narrative to too great extent, and I would be obliged 
to sacrifice other later and interesting events. But 
I shall quote the following part of the Saga of Eric the 
Red relating to the voyage of Frydis, Helgi and Finn- 
bogi, A. D. 1011. "Now people began again to talk 
about voyages to Vinland, the Good, for voyages there 
to appeared both profitable and of honor. The same 
summer that Karlsefni went from Vinland, there came 
a ship from Norway to Greenland; this ship carried 
two brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi. They stayed for 
the winter in Greenland. These brothers were Ice- 
landers. It is now to be told that Freydis, the daughter 
of Eric, went from her home in Garde to the brothers, 
Helgi and Finnbogi, and asked them to sail to Vinland 
with their ships, and to go halves with her in all the 
profits that might be made there. To this they agreed. 
Then she went to Leif, her brother, and begged him to 
give her the houses which he had built in Vinland; but 
he answered that he would lend her the houses but 
would not give them. So it was settled between the 
brothers and Freydis, that each should have thirty 
fighting men in the ship besides the women. But 
Freydis broke this agreement and hid five men more, 
which the brothers knew not of till they came to Vinland. 
Now they sailed out into the sea, and the brothers 
came there a little ahead and took up their abode in 
Leif 's houses. But when Freydis came to the land, they 
cleared out their ships and took their goods to the house. 
Then said Freydis: "Why bring your things here?" 
They replied, "Because we believed that the whole 
agreement should stand good between us." Then said 



The Viking and the Catholic Church 27 

she, — "Leif lent the houses to me and not to you." 
Then said Helgi, — "We brothers are easily excelled in 
evil-doing by thee." Then they took out their goods 
and made a separate dwelling, and set it further from 
the shore, on the edge of a lake. Now winter began 
and the brothers proposed to have sports and amuse- 
ments. So it was done for a time, but evil reports 
and discords sprang up among them, and there was 
an end to the sports and nobody came from one house 
to the other, and so it went on for a long time during 
the winter." 

The Saga goes on to tell how the expedition came 
to a violent and bloody end through the evil temper 
and avaricous disposition of Freydis, who persuaded 
her husband to fall upon the brothers and their men 
in their sleep and kill them. Freydis herself killed 
the women of the Helgi, — Finn bogi party. Many 
such quarrels and killings are related in the Sagas; 
and it was on account of such occurrences, arising as 
they no doubt did from the unbearable tempers and 
fighting dispositions of the Norsemen, together with 
the perpetual warfare with the native Indians, that 
the Vinland settlements were never happy and pros- 
perous colonies. It is doubtless true that the Indians 
would have treated the new comers in as friendly 
a manner as they afterwards treated the French, and 
would have lived in peace with them as they did with 
their French brothers and allies centuries afterwards. 
But it requires little reading of the Icelandic Sagas to 
be persuaded that no race on the face of the earth 
could live in peace with those fierce warriors. They 
went looking for trouble and when they could not find 
a common enemy to fight, they kept in fighting practice 
by murdering each other. 

One other Saga I desire to quote before leaving 



28 The Makers of Maine 

this subject. It is a fragment of the "Vellum Codex," 
supposed to have been written about the end of the 
14th century. It is interesting as showing the 
Geography of the time. 

"Next to Denmark is the lesser Sweden, then is 
Oeland, then Gottland, then Helsingeland, then Verme- 
land, and the two Kvendlands, which lie to the north 
of Bjarmeland. From Bjarmeland stretches unin- 
habited land towards the north, until Greenland begins 
South of Greenland lies Helluland, next lies Markland 
thence it is not far to Vinland the Good, which some 
think goes out from Africa. It is related that Thorfin 
Karlsefni cut wood here to ornament his house, and 
went afterwards to seek out Vinland the Good, and 
came there where they thought the land was but did 
not effect the knowledge of it and gained none of the 
riches of the land. Leif the Lucky first discovered 
Vinland, and then he met some merchants in distress 
at sea and by God's mercy saved their lives; and he 
introduced Christianity into Greenland and it spread 
itself there so that a Bishop's seat was established in 
the place called Gardar. England and Scotland are an 
island and yet each is a kingdom itself. Ireland is a 
great island. Iceland is also a great island north of 
Ireland. These countries are all in that part of the 
world called Europe." 

It would be interesting now to go back of the time 
of the Norse discoveries of America, and speak of the 
traditions of the Irish visits before the time of the 
Norsemen. But, although I do not pretend to be 
A\Titing a history, yet I claim for all that I write the 
basis of historical fact. So much of what has come 
down to us relative to the voyages of the Irish to these 
shores before the Norsemen is admittedly legend and 
not history, that I hesitate to even mention it. It 



The Viking and the catholic Church 29 

is undoubtedly true that the Irish visited Iceland be- 
fore the Scandinavians came there, and it is quite 
probable that the bold, adventurous Irish sailors were 
often driven out of their course in those stormy seas, 
just as the Norsemen afterwards were, and very likely 
saw the shores of the western continent, perhaps landed 
there. But the tradition of a Great Ireland somewhere 
to the south of Vinland, inhabited by white men speaking 
the Irish language, the tradition of Bjorn Asbrandson 
who was driven out of Iceland for his sins and was 
discovered thirty years afterwards living in that land 
to the south of Vinland, called Great Ireland, among 
Irish speaking white men, as well as among the natives, 
the traditions of the Indian tribes that white men 
once lived in Florida, and used iron instruments, all 
these are traditions and not history. Romances might 
be built upon them, but however interesting it is, the 
tradition of the Irish speaking white men of "Ireland 
ed Mikla,'* Ireland the Greater, is as much a tradition 
as the voyage of St. Brendan from Ireland to the fortu- 
nate Isles in the sixth century. 

There is so much evidence of the spread of Chris- 
ianity and the authority of the Catholic Church over 
Ireland, Greenland and the lands to the west, that it 
is unnecessary to quote at any length the numerous 
documents preserved by the Vatican and made public 
to the world within the last few years. But for the 
purpose of our view of the state of conditions in these 
western lands at the period of the Norse settlements 
in New England, it may be interesting to our readers 
to quote the following letter written by Pope Alexan- 
der VI. It was written during the period of the settle- 
ment of this country. The exact date of the letter of Pope 
Alexander VI is uncertain, except that it was certainly 
written during the early years of his pontificate. This 



30 The Makers of Maine 

letter shows clearly that, in silver and gold, the 
Norsmen were very poor; but considering what they 
had to contend against in all the centuries after they 
were Christianized, and considering the great distance 
of their country from Rome, the center of Christianity 
and the heart of civilization, they were a great race and 
a wonderful people. The letter is to me most 
interesting. Allowing for the natural weakness of those 
Norsemen who fell away from the faith, in the words 
of the venerable Pontiff, not having had the minis- 
tration of priest or bishop for eighty years, — figure to 
yourself the great faith of the majority of those warlike 
adventurers who once each year gathered together to 
venerate a "certain Corporale", — a mere piece of cloth, 
blessed, upon which, one hundred years before, something 
that no living man of them could have seen with his 
own eyes, the consecrated Body of Christ had rested 
for a few minutes during the celebration of the Holy 
Sacrifice of the Mciss by the last priest who had lived 
there. 

There was a faith and devotion equal to any that 
inspired the noblest and bravest of Jesuits who followed 
the Norsemen in New England five and six centuries 
afterwards. There seems something fitting in the fact 
that the Bishop-elect, Matthias, who was intending 
to go to Greenland to take charge of the See of Garda, 
should be as poor as the Norsemen to whom he was 
going, — so poor that Pope Alexander ordered that all 
Apostolic Letters be forwarded to him without charge 
or expense. The closing words of the letter in their 
simplicity speak volumes: — "Let it be done everywhere 
gratis because he is extremely poor." 

The letter above mentioned follow: 

English translation of Letter of Pope Alexander VL 



The Viking and the Catholic Church 31 

{Alexander VI.) {In the early years of his Pontificate.) 
10. Since, as we have heard the Church of Garda 
is situated at the extremity of the earth in the country 
of Greenland, whose inhabitants are accustomed to use 
dried fish and milk because of the want of bread, wine 
and oil, wherefore and also on account of the rare 
shipping to said country due to the intense freezing of 
the sea no vessel is believed to have put to land there 
for eighty years back, or if it happened that such voyages 
were made, surely, it is thought, they could not have 
been accomplished save in the month of August, when 
the ice was dissolved; and since it is likewise said that 
for eighty years or thereabouts, absolutely no bishop 
or priest governed that Church in personal residence 
which fact, together with the absense of Catholic priests, 
brought it to pass that very many of the diocese unhap- 
ily repudiated their sacred baptismal vows ; and since the 
inhabitants of that land have no relic of the Christian 
religion save a ceitain Corporale, annually set forth, 
upon which, a hundred years ago, the Body of Christ 
was consecrated by the last priest then living there; 
— for these, then, and for other considerations, Pope 
Innocent VIII, of blessed memory. Our Predecessor 
wishing to provide a suitable pastor for that Church 
at the time deprived of the useful solace of the same, 
at the advice of his brethren, of whom We were t hen 
one appointed bishop and pastor to that place Our 
venerable brother Matthias; the latter was Bishop- 
elect of Garda, a professed member of the Order of St. 
Benedict, and had been announced, at Our urging, 
while We were still in minor orders, as intending to sail 
personally for said Church, inspired with great fervor 
of devotion to lead back the soul of the strayed and 
apostate to the way of eternal salvation, and to expose 
his life to the greatest danger, freely and spontaneously, 
to obliberate such errors. We, therefore, highly com- 
mending the pious and praiseworthy undertaking in 
the Lord of said Bishop-elect, and wishing to succor 
him in the above circumstances, because, as We have 
likewise heard, he is sorely pressed by poverty, at Our 
own instance and with the certain knowledge of the 
advice and approval of Our brethren, commit to and 



32 The Makers of Maine 

order, in a circular letter to Our esteemed sons, the 
scribes, solicitors, those who have charge of the seals, 
the registrars, and all the other officials both of Our 
Apostolic chancery and treasury, that, under pain of 
excommunication, "lata sententia," ipso facto incurred 
all and each of the Apostolic Letters, about and concern- 
ing the promotion of said Church of Garda, to be for- 
warded for said Bishop-elect, be forwarded by them 
and caused to be forwarded in all and each of their 
offices, everywhere gratis, for God, and without payment 
or exaction of any tax, all contradiction ceasing; and 
to the clerics and notaries of the Apostolic treasury 
We commit and command, at like instance and knowl- 
edge and under said pain of excommunication, that they 
freely hand over and consign these letters or Bulls to 
said Bishop-elect, without payment or exaction of any 
revenues, or even of small fees, or of the other claims 
usually paid in similar cases, anything enacted to the 
contrary notwithstanding. Let it be done everywhere 
gratis because he is extremely poor. R. 

As. Ma., Vice Chancellor. Jno. Datrarius, (Secretary.) 



CHAPTER IV. 

The First Expedition of the French 

From this time on for five hundred years this 
region — Estotiland, Drogeo, Norumbega, Maine, 
faded from the memory of man; and the shadows of 
ignorance and barbarity slowly deepened over it. 
But the light of Christian faith had once been brought 
to it. The cioss had once been planted in its soil, 
and the ashes of a departed Christian rested in sanc- 
tified ground. True enough, we cannot conceive it to 
be any part of the divine plan that the western natives 
were to be Christianized by Thorwald and his band 
of hard fighting, hard drinking Norsemen who had 
barely ceased to worship Odin and Thor, Frigga and 
Freyja, as gods and goddesses and begun to fear them 
as demons and grisly ghosts. They were of the race 
and time that used the sword to bring converts to the 
font and regarded the baptism of blood more cheer- 
fully than the baptism of water. We must remember 
that they were the followers of St. Olaf, king and 
martyr, who died in a pitched battle trying to drive 
instead of lead his rebellious freemen to the cross. 
We must remember that this was only shortly after 
the time of Charlemagne, who, great champion of the 
Church though he was, knew only one effective 
ultimatum, and that the one he gave to the Saxons 
at Main Bridge, — "Christianity or Death." 

But we may be permitted to imagine that the 
planting of the cross in the soil of Maine by Thor- 



34 The Makers of Maine 

wald's men was prophetic; was, like the cross which 
Constantine saw in the skies, a sign of what was to 
come. Thorwald's wooden cross decayed and crumb- 
bled and resolved itself into its original elements, but 
the promise was there, and never departed. And 
centuries after, when Europe was torn asunder with 
religious turmoil, when the favorite children of the 
Church turned upon their mother to rend her asunder 
in their madness, the mystic light of Thorwald's 
cross sent its beckoning, insistent beams far across the 
stormy Atlantic to the souls of another generation 
of Crusaders animated and inspired by a different zeal 
and a more apostolic understanding, and its spiritual 
message was received and answered. 

Thus it was that the somber-garbed soldiers of 
Ignatius Loyola, the Society of Jesus, the greatest 
society, clerical or lay, that the world has ever known, 
came to this land of strange and barbarous names, 
to follow the light of the cross the Norsemen brought 
to these shores. Strong words of description, you 
will say, to call the Jesuits the greatest society the 
world has ever known. I shall not try to defend the 
use of them. It is not for me to attempt to add my 
small measure of praise to this great order whose 
members, both those exalted and those of low degree, — 
are as silent as the dumb when the faintest word of 
praise of their society is uttered in their presence. 

Their work and labor, their marvellous deeds, 
their great achievements, I shall mention in a succeed- 
ing chapter. The great and lasting good they nearly 
accomplished, had it not been for greed and covet- 
ousness, uncharitableness and illiberality, I shall try 
to give full ciedit for. How the bitter religious tur- 
moil of Europe was transferred to this unfortunate 
soil, from the time when Francis I of France said 



The First Expedition of the French 35 

that, — "He would like to see the clause in Adam's 
will which made this continent the exclusive possess- 
sion of his brothers of Spain and Portugal;" and 
Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, — "to allow of the discovery of lands in Ameri- 
ca fatally reserved to England for the honor of her 
majesty," I will endeavor to show faithfully, care- 
fully and in the spirit of fairness. 

Strange beliefs were held and strange tales told 
of this region in those days. Other enemies than 
human ones inhabitated these rocky shores. Griffins, 
hob-goblins, and demons roamed the forests of New 
Foundland and Labrador. The superstitious sailors 
heard the infernal cries of these beings echoing from 
cliflf to clifif. 

Andre Thevet writes: "True it is, and I myself 
have heard it, not from one, but from a great number 
of the sailors and pilots with whom I have made many 
voyages, that when they passed this way they heard 
in the air, on the tops and about the masts, a great 
clamor of men's voices, confused and inarticulate, 
such as you may hear from the crowd at a fair or 
market-place, whereupon they well knew that the 
Isle of Demons was not far off." 

Marc Lescarbot, who was far from credulous, 
who was indeed rather skeptical for his time, relates 
some wild tales which were told to him. I quote the 
following which he sets forth: 

"There is another strange thing worthy of record, 
of the truth of which many savages have assured me. 
It is that to southward, near Chaleur Bay, lies an isle 
where lives a dreadful monster called by the savages 
Gougou, which they told me had a woman's shape, 
but very terrible, and so tall, said they, that the tops 
of the masts of our vessel would not have reached 



36 The Makers of Maine 

her waist, so tall do they describe her, and that she has 
often devoured, and still devours, many savages, 
whom she puts in a great pouch when she can catch 
them, and then eats them; and those who had escaped 
the peril of this unchancy beast said that this pouch 
was so large that she could have put our vessel in it 
This monster, whom the savages call Gougou, makes 
terrible noises in this island; and when they speak of 
it, it is always with a strange and unequalled fear, 
and many have assured me that they have seen it. 
The said Monsieur Prevert of St. Malo himself told 
me that on his way to explore the mines he had passed 
so near the lair of this dreadful beast, that he and 
all his crew heard strange hissing noises made by it, 
and that the savages with him told him that it was the 
same beast, and were so afraid that they ran every- 
where to hide themselves for fear that it had come to 
carry them off; and I am led to believe their tale by 
the general fear which all the savages have of it, and 
the strange tales they tell of it, in so much that if 
I were to set down all they tell, it would be thought 
fabulous; but I hold it to be the haunt of some devil 
who torments them in this fashion. This then is 
what I have learned of this Gougou." 

Yet Lescarbot dismisses with scant courtesy a 
report of Jacques Cartier's, which he likens to one of 
Pliny's stories of an unknown race of Mouthless Peo- 
ple once living near the source of the Ganges. He says: 
"Nor do I give credence to the tale of Captain Jacques 
Cartier when, in accordance with the report of the 
savage, Donnacona, whom he brought i#ito France to 
tell it to the King, he speaks of certain people of the 
Saguenay, whom also he affirms to have no mouth and 
to take no food, with other tales void of common sense." 

Having reached the beginning of the seventeenth 



The First Expedition of the French 37 

century in our view of Maine history, it is well to pause 
and look around at general history, so that we 
may see what was going along in the Old World at 
this time. One of the most serious drawbacks that 
I have invariably encountered in all historical writ- 
ings upon special subjects is the fact that the writer 
apparently loses sight of the movement of contem- 
poraneous history in other countries than the country 
of which he is writing, at least he certainly causes his 
reader to lose sight of it. I would like for once to 
read a work of special history which, as it proceeds 
with its own course of narration, at the same time 
keeps its reader continually informed of the contem- 
poraneous history of the rest of the world. The 
writer who could do that, by subconscious suggestion, 
as it were, would be the greatest historical genius 
that civilization has ever produced. 

In the course of Maine history we are viewing a 
period which coincides roughly with the stormy per- 
iod of European politics extending from the Peace of 
Augsburg (1555) to the breaking out of the Thirty 
Years War (1618) that fearful war when for the first 
time in history every nation in Europe was arrayed 
in arms. It is the time when Henry IV was King of 
France (he was assassinated in 1610.) It is the time 
when, following the rise of Protestantism, dissenting 
sects were springing up in multitudes, "hating each 
other for the love of God." Two sects of Lutherans, 
subscribers and non-subscribers to the Formula of 
Concord, were gnashing their teeth at each other, 
both at the Calvinists, and the Calvinists at both; 
denying one another the liberty of conscience which 
they had deserted Rome for refusing them. Yielding 
to ignorant, and often godless, secular rulers the 
authority in matters of faith which they had cursed 



38 The Makers of Maine 

and confusion worse confounded reached such a stage 
that Phillip Melancthon, the ablest leader of thought, 
the brightest spirit, the one sincere apostle of the re- 
formation, longed to die to escape the implacable 
quarrels of the theologians. 

It is the time of the rise (1540) and marvellous 
growth of the Society of Jesus, who became the patrons 
of education and learning, and the militant champions 
of the faith, causing that movement called in history 
the counter religious revolution, by which southern 
and western Germany went back into the Church; 
missions were extended to far Cathay, where Jesuits 
taught astronomy to the Mandarins of China, disput- 
ed with the Japanese theologians, converted the fol- 
lowers of Brahma, preached the gospel in Abssinia, 
carried the cross to Paraguay, and wrought miracles 
in Brazil. 

One who reads and considers the historic rise and 
progress of the Society of Jesus at this critical moment 
in the life of the Roman Catholic Church, the marvel- 
lous achievements of its members in every phase of 
human activity, in the courts and schools of Europe, in 
the wilderness of America, in the jungles of Africa and 
Central Asia in the innermost sanctuaries of the cen- 
turies-old learning and philosophy of the Far East, 
the learning and philosophy of a race whose civiliza- 
tion was old when the Europeans were savages clothed 
in the skins of beasts, barbarians fighting with stone 
weapons, — facts whose truth is attested by the most 
prejudiced anti-Catholic writers, — when one considers 
these things with a fair and open mind, searching for 
the truth, desiring to know it, one is forced to the 
conclusion that this society was called into existance 
by the Direct act of Divine Providence, because the dif- 
ficulties of incredulity are greater than those of belief. 



The First Expedition of the French 39 

The introduction of the subject of the Jesuits is 
not out of place because very soon it will be necessary 
in the development of our subject to review the acts 
of the Jesuits in Maine, And an understanding of 
their relations with the Indians is very necessary to 
an understanding of the history of Maine. 

We come now to the history of an expedition 
and a settlement, which makes one of the most interest- 
ing and romantic tales of all the history of this country. 
Linked with the story is the name of one of the great- 
est, most energetic, and most determined men of all 
the leaders whose names make a galaxy of bright 
stars in the pages of history, — Sieur de Monts, and the 
the settlement of Port Royal, now known as Anna- 
polis, Nova Scotia. To quote the words of Marc 
Lescarbot in beginning his history of that period of 
New France: — "In this book I wish to tell the story 
of an enterprise at once the most valiant and the 
least assisted and helped of all that we French have 
attempted in the colonization of new lands over sea. 
The Story centers round Monsieur de Monts, by 
name Pierre du Gua, a nobleman of Saintonge." 

Pierre du Gua, or as the name is now usually 
spelled in historical writings, du Guast, was born in 
Saint Onge about 1560 and fought on the Protestant 
side in the religious wars. His life ambition, with 
which one may say he seemed to be posessed, was the 
settlement of the New World by Frenchmen. So 
much is this accepted by historians as a historical 
fact, that it is commonly believed that he died in 1611 
broken-hearted as a result of his failure in New France; 
but it is very doubtful that he died so early after the 
Port Royal expedition. He was certainly alive in 1611. 

King Henry IV on the eighth day of November 
1603 issued to de Monts letters-patent creating him 



40 The Makers of Maine 

Lieutenant-General of the king in the lands of New 
France from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees 
of latitude, and giving him sole authority and juris- 
diction over them. In the letters-patent the lands 
are called "La Cadie", — the earliest reference to the 
name, "Acadia," in any public document. Cham- 
plain uses the name in his "Voyages," but spells it 
always with an "r". There is a dispute as to the 
origin of the name, some holding it to be a corruption 
of "Arcadia"; it seems to me, however, that the most 
likely origin is from the Micmac Indian; the ending of 
the word is commonly found in the names of places in 
the Micmac dialect, such as Passamaquoddy, and 
Tracadie. 

The letters-patent make more interesting reading 
than most of such documents. For instance, the King 
evidently feared that it might be difificult for de Monts 
to secure men enough for the expedition, for the letters 
say: " * * * * Shall establish garrisons of armed 
men for their protection. For which purposes you are 
permitted to make use of and to impress all vagabonds, 
idlers and masterless men, both in town and country, 
and all criminals condemned to perpetual banishment, 
or to exile from the kingdom for at least three years, 
provided always that the said impressment be with 
the knowledge and consent and on the authority of 
our officers." 

In order that de Monts might have an assured 
monopoly of the traffic in furs, the king forbade any 
competition under penalty of confiscation of vessels 
and goods and a fine of 30,000 francs in addition. 

The story of the de Monts expedition introduces 
to our acquaintance another gentleman of France 
whose personalty and career are interesting, — Jean 
de Biencourt, Seignieur de Poutrincourt, or as he is 










Samuel de Champlain 



The First Expedition of the French 41 

known in historical writings, simply, — de Poutrincourt. 
He was descended from a family prominent in France. 
He had a love of adventure and travel and was desirous 
of possessing lands in the new world where he might 
live with his family and make the future home of him- 
self and his descendants. 

The expedition sailed from Havre de Grace in 
two ships, on the seventh day of March, 1604, according 
to Lescarbot, — on the seventh of April according to 
Champlain, who is followed in the matter of this date 
by Francis Parkman. This, as we well know now, is 
the season of most stormy and dangerous passage in 
the northern waters. The expedition found their 
voyage no exception in this regard. Calling to our 
aid even a very little imagination we can easily conceive 
a picture of the dangers and risks these men took 
in their little ships on these comparatively unknown 
waters. If a great steamship of modern construction 
is in constant danger of annihilation by ice bergs with 
all the protection of modern ingenuity, what must 
have been the danger that those adventurers exposed 
their lives to, and what must have been the courage, love 
of adventure, and high ambition which actuated them. 

Marc Lescarbot offers his explanation of why 
there is more ice in those waters than there is off the 
coast of France in the same latitude, that the sea of 
France is sheltered by the British Isles and the ice 
bergs cannot reach it, whereas the broad Atlantic 
has no such protection. Although we know wiser 
reasons now, yet Lescarbot's explanation is not lacking 
in ingenuity, and shows that he was a keen observer 
and a good reasoner. 

The two ships were separated during the course 
of the stormy passage, and the ship carrying de Monts 
and Poutrincourt made land at a harbor in the 44th 



42 The Makers of Maine 

degree of latitude, May 6th. This harbor is now 
known as Liverpool. They named it Port Rossignol, 
because when they arrived, they found a certain 
Captain Rossignol there before them, bartering in 
furs. They promptly confiscated his ship for violation 
of the King's decree, of which poor Rossignol could 
never have had opportunity of hearing; and in poetic 
justice they consoled him by making his name famous. 
As a matter of fact the river flowing into this harbor 
is still called Rossignol River. After some weeks, 
with the help of the Indians, they located their com- 
panion ship at the Bay of Islands. 

A strange incident happened while they were 
lying in St. Mary's Bay, — a part of the coast of Nova 
Scotia still so called. The story is related by both 
Champlain and Lescarbot, and Parkman repeats it. 
It seems that two clergymen accompanied the expe- 
dition, one a Hugenot and the other a Catholic, secular, 
priest, that is, — not belonging to any of the orders. 
Fame has preserved the name of the latter because 
of his almost miraculous escape from death. Monsieur 
Aubrey was a young churchman who joined the ex- 
pedition much against the will of his family. On 
the voyage he and his religious confrere, whom we must 
rather call, his religious rival, had many a warm 
dispute and wrangle about religion and theology. 
While the ships were anchored in St. Mary's Bay 
he accompanied a party for a little jaunt through 
the woods. Having stopped at a spring to get a drink 
of water, and leaving his sword behind in his hurry 
to catch up with the rest of the party again, he went 
back to find the sword. He not only could not find 
the spring again, but he lost his sense of direction 
in the woods, and became totally lost. At nightfall 
he was missed and a search was instituted, but to no 



The First Expedition of the French 43 

avail. For several days they continued the search, 
until at last they gave him up for dead. Sixteen days 
afterwards two of the party were fishing near Long 
Island, (still so called,) when they heard a feeble shout. 
To their great surprise they found that it was none 
other than Aubrey. They took him to camp, and fed 
him carefully till he regained his strength. During 
all those sixteen days he had lived on nothing but 
berries, Lescarbot considered it a miracle. He cites 
many other strange cases of persons fasting for many 
days, but considers this case the most wonderful 
of all because this young man had made no preparations 
for such a fast, while in most other cases preparation 
had been made, and usually they were sustained by 
religious ecstasy. 



CHAPTER V 
The Port Royal Expedition 

Now we come to the establishment of the settle- 
ment of Port Royal, famous in history. Champlain 
and Lescarbot both describe Port Royal and its location. 
Both were enthusiastic over its great natural beauty 
and have left us glowing descriptions. An amusing 
literary quarrel was carried on between the two writers, 
amusing to us at this day, but no doubt very serious 
to them. The two men were friends at first but a 
coolness grew up in the course of time which ripened 
into positive mutual dislike. The literary aspect of the 
quarrel presents itself in disputes in their histories 
as to the question who should have the credit of one 
thing and another. Both agree that the settlement 
was called Port Royal for the great natural beauty 
of its location, but disagree on the subject of who 
gave it its name. Champlain maintains that he did; 
Lescarbot claims that it was de Monts. After Lescar- 
bot published his history, Champlain published another 
edition of his own in 1632 and insisted upon his claim. 

Pourtrincourt was so much pleased with the site of 
Port Royal that he asked de Monts to give it to him, 
which was done, and the King afterwards confirmed 
the grant by letters-patent. Thus Jean de Biencourt, 
Sieur de Poutrincourt, became Lord, Seigneur, of a 
barony in the New World; and, as for many a year 
the bounds of what wc now call Maine were indefinite, 
and as France always claimed it as a part of Acadia, 



The Port Royal Expedition 4S 

and England admitted the claim for the largest part of 
it, so the Sieur de Poutrincourt became the first lord and 
ruler having landed proprietorship and jurisdiction in 
the country a part of which afterwards became the State 
of Maine. We will consider the claims of Ferdinand© 
Gorges, and the County Palatine of Maine, later. 

The confident words of Lescarbot as he writes of this 
subject have a solemn sound to us now as we consider 
what changes afterwards took place and reflect upon the 
old proverb, — "Man proposes, God disposes." These 
are Lescarbot's words: "M. de Poutrincourt received his 
grant, and since then has taken out letters of confirma- 
tion from the King, and intends to retire thither with his 
household, there to establish the name of Christ and of 
France as far as his power shall extend and God grants 
him the means." His ambition was lofty and noble, but 
his power and means were limited. His reign as 
Seigneur of Port Royal was brief. 

The Frenchmen were very much impressed by the 
River St. John, which, as Lescarbot and Champlain 
agree, was so named becaus the exploring party 
arrived in the river on the 24th of June, St. John's 
day, a day now celebrated above all other holidays 
in the year by the French of Canada and their de- 
cendants who have made homes for themselves in 
the States. Besides the beauty of its scenery, they 
made much of its usefulness for navigation, once the 
falls at the head of the harbor were safely negotiated 
at the right stage of the tide. And the fishing was so good, 
that, as they said, they could light a fire and put the 
pot on to boil and by the time the water had reached 
the boiling point they could have enough fish caught 
to fill the pot. 

Above all other points, however, the strategic 
location of Port Royal for purposes of communication 



46 The Makers of Maine 

with the St, Lawrence valley and Quebec in time 
of peace as well as war, was noteworthy. Here the 
foresight of these explorers and adventurers is seen 
to be remarkable. In six days they could reach Gaspe 
and the Bay of Chaleur, almost entirely by water, 
being obliged to carry their canoes only a few miles, 
and in eight days, Tadousac. So, as Lescarbot 
said, in from fifteen to eighteen days they could get 
news to their countrymen who lived along the St. 
Lawrence, whereas it would have taken a month to 
do so by sea. This fact should be remembered in con- 
sidering the history of the tide of war which rolled back 
and forth over our country of Maine and Acadia, be- 
tween the English and the French for so many long 
years. 

Under the direction of Champlain an encampment 
was made on the island which was named St. Croix, 
in modern times known as Dochet Island; but a few 
years ago, the year of 1904, renamed St. Croix. It 
is located near the mouth of the St. Croix river. Les- 
carbot criticized Champlain severely for this choice 
of a camp, and it is quite generally agreed that in 
this he was right. Champlain was a great warrior 
and a great leader, but in many respects he did not 
show good judgement and foresight. Certainly 
Lescarbot was right in his opinion that an island was 
no place to start the founding of a colony; it was a 
poor situation from the point of view of cultivating 
the soil, and poor again from the point of view of a 
strategic position for defense in time of war. 

The remarkable difference in the attitude of 
the Indians towards the French, their very friendly 
attitude, in contradistinction to their attitude toward 
the English, an attitude on the whole of enmity, except 
in the few instances of alliances for purposes of warfare, 



The Port Royal expedition 4? 

was early shown in the treatment of Jacques Cartier 
during his voyages. The next impressive instance 
we find is in the case of the de Monts expedition. 
It seems as if the natives at once accepted the 
French as their friends and brothers, and regarded 
de Monts himself with great respect and reverence, 
as almost a superior being. They made him judge in 
their disputes and quarrels. They brought him dis- 
putes for adjudication, laid their cases before him, pro- 
produced their witnesses, made their arguments, and 
accepted his decree of judgement as final, and obeyed 
implicity his decisions. 

When winter came on Poutrincourt departed for 
France with the two ships leaving de Monts and his 
lieutenants with their followers to get through that 
first and most terrible winter as best they could. We 
have read of the sufferings of the Pilgrims in their 
first winters on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, and 
Francis Parkman and other writers have told the 
tale of the troubles and sufferings of the members of 
the de Monts company. But if one would read a 
vivid account of what that first winter really was, 
he should read Marc Lescarbot's own story in his 
History of New France. There we find not only the 
tale told at first hand by one who knew, but we read 
history, written by a master hand of literature and 
told with all the graces of good literature and pol- 
ished rhetoric. Here is a man whose name is little 
known to the general reader, in comparison with the 
names of Champlain, Charlevoix and the other great 
Frenchmen who were, at once, doers of things, leaders 
of men, and writers of history. But no abler man, 
brighter spirit, braver leader, and master of letters, 
ever set his foot upon this western land. Had it not 
been for him and his brave spirit and bright mind, 



48 The Makers of Maine 

this company of de Monts would have probably 
perished in that terrible winter when out of a com- 
munity of seventy-nine, thirty-five died before spring. 
In Champlain's history of this expedition a more full 
and carefully detailed account is written of the plague 
of scurvy which swept over the camp. But Lescarbot 
discusses the epidemic, its causes, and its remedies 
in a very skillful manner according to the light he had 
on the subject from a pathological point of view. His 
innate good sense and good judgement told him that 
what was needed to fight off scurvy was not merely 
fresh vegetables, but plenty of out-door exercise 
and work. 

Charlevoix, than whom no one was better qualified 
to form a correct judgement of Lescarbot, except, of 
course, Champlain, who was not on friendly terms with 
him, says: "Marc Lescarbot, an advocate from 
Paris, a man of ability, strongly attached to M. de 
Poutrincourt, had had a curiosity, quite unusual 
in men of his profession, to see the New World; and he 
was highly instrumental in putting and retaining 
things in this happy state. He encouraged some, 
he touched the honor of others, he won the good will 
of all, and spared himself in naught. He daily in- 
vented something new for the public good. And 
there was never a stronger proof of what advantage 
a new settlement might derive from a mind cultivated 
by study, and induced by patriotism to use its know- 
ledge and reflections. We are indebted to this advo- 
cate for the best memoirs we possess of what passed 
before his eyes, and for a history of French Florida. 
We there behold an exact and judicious writer, a man 
with views of his own, and who would have been as 
capable of founding a colony as of writing its history." 

This is all the higher praise for Lescarbot coming 



The Port Royal Expedition 4d 

as it does, from a Jesuit, for whose order Lescarbot 
showed but little love. It is a great pity that 
Lescarbot could not have remained longer in New 
France or made other voyages to different parts of it, 
for there is no historian of that period whose writings 
are so valuable as history and so interesting and 
pleasing as literature. 



CHAPTER VI 
Marc Lescarbot— His Character and Writing 

As soon as the weather permitted, after the hard 
winter which the company had passed at St, Croix, 
de Monts ordered an exploring expedition along the 
coast to the west and south. Lescarbot's story of 
this journey is especially important and interesting 
to us who are engaged in the study of Maine history, 
for two reasons in particular. First Lescarbot's 
description of the coast of Maine is interesting of it- 
self, and it is remarkable how well his understanding 
of what he saw compares with the true facts as we 
know them now. And second, he discusses the old 
traditions of the mythical Norumbega, and disposes 
of them summarily, and, as we also know now, with 
almost wonderful certainty and unerring judgement. 
He was without doubt naturally of a skeptical turn 
of mind, but with his skepticism he applied a clear 
and careful reasoning sense. He gives the name, 
Norumbega to the Penobscot River, but dismisses 
with scant courtesy the tales of the wonderful city 
called Norumbega situated somewhere on the river. 
His quotation from the book published at Douay in 
1607, entitled the General History of the West Indies, 
is as follows: "Further northward is Norumbega, 
known well enough for a fine city and a broad river, 
though the origin of the name in unknown; for the 
savages call it Agguncia. At the mouth of this river 
is an island well suited for fishing. The region along 



Marc Lescarbot 61 

the seacoast abounds in fish, and towards New France 
wild beasts are found in great numbers ; it is well suited 
for hunting, and the inhabitants live in the same man- 
ner as those of New France." Lescarbot says that if 
this fair town ever existed, he would fain know who 
has destroyed it in the last eighty years. 

The company followed the coast line of Maine 
very closely, entering the mouth of the Kennebec riv- 
er, called by the French "Kinibeki," exploring Casco 
Bay, and proceeding some distance down the shore 
of New Hampshire and Massachusetts; but they 
returned satisfied that there was no better place to 
found a permanent settlement than where they were. 
It seems that de Monts would have preferred to make 
the settlement at some place further south, about six 
degrees of latitude south of St. Croix, but as they 
could not find a suitable location, they decided to 
transfer the camp from St. Croix to Port Royal. 

On the coming of a certain M. du Pont from 
France with aid for the colonists, de Monts decided to 
return. Lescarbot went back to France with de 
Monts. Champlain stayed on at Port Royal. Evi- 
dently the new man, du Pont, was in command, for 
we read that he put Champdor6, their sea-captain 
and pilot, in irons, considering him to be responsible 
for the shipwreck of their long boat. 

The sound judgement and foresight of Lescarbot 
is shown not least in his strong indictment of the 
Frenchmen for their disinclination to work at tilling 
the soil. He says that in those days this employment 
was regarded as degrading for a gentleman, it being 
the work of peasants and serfs. He, however, looks 
upon it as the noblest and most independent of all 
work, "the pursuit of our first fathers, of the kings 



52 The Makers of Maine. 

of old, and of the greatest captains in the world." 
Lescarbot was many years ahead of his times. 

De Monts found Poutrincourt ready and willing 
to go back to New France, and at the request of Pout- 
rincourt, Lescarbot agreed to go with him, to our 
own great and lasting gratitude, for as I have said be- 
fore, we owe more to Lescarbot for his interesting 
historical writings than to any other man of those 
times. With all his genius, however, it must not 
be assumed too readily by the reader that he was so 
far ahead of his time as to be a man of our own way 
of thinking in all things. This is a common error of 
many, — to magnify the ability, and foresight, and 
liberality of certain men whose names adorn the pages 
of history, and whom we take to our hearts, and place 
upon a pedestal in our regard high above all other 
men of their time, because we see in their character 
something akin to our own ideal. No man in all 
history was altogether ahead of his day. Lescarbot 
was no exception to this rule. He had much of the 
gentleman's contempt for the common people. Thus 
in speaking of the trouble into which the sailors of 
the ship "Jonas" got themselves at the port of La 
Rochelle, before sailing to New France, he says: "But 
the common people is a queer beast. In this connec- 
tion I remember the so-called Peasants' War,in the midst 
of which I once found myself, when I was in Quercy. 
It was the most bizarre thing in the world to see this 
clutter of folk, all wearing wooden shoes, whence they 
had got the name of Clackers because their shoes, 
hobnailed behind and before, went clack at every' 
step: This motley mob would hear neither rhyme 
nor reason, everybody was master, some were armed 
with a sickle at the end of a stake, others with some 
rusty sword, and so accordingly." 



Marc Lescarbot ss 

Another phase of Lescarbot's many sided char- 
acter is strange and interesting. He was certainly a 
Catholic and at times devout. Certainly he seems 
to take a pleasure in displaying his training in the 
study of the Bible, for he quotes from Scriptures 
very freely. Yet, it must be that he had conceived 
some prejudice against the clergy, and especially 
against the Jesuits in his college days. He takes 
pleasure in giving a sly dig to certain priests now and 
then, as for instance, when relating the extraordinary 
escape from death by starvation and exposure of the 
young churchman who was lost in the woods of Nova 
Scotia for some time, which I have written about, 
he slyly says that the poor fellow had never prepared 
himself by his way of living for such a long fast. 

Writing of the stay in La Rochelle while getting 
ready for the voyage to New France, he says: "And 
since I am undertaking to write a narrative of events 
in the manner in which they took place, I will say that 
it is a shame to our religion that the Protestant minis- 
ters of La Rochelle pray to God daily in their meetings 
for the conversion of these poor savage tribes, and 
also for our own safety, and that our Churchmen do 
not do the like. In truth we asked neither the one 
nor the other to do so, but in this the zeal of each is 
manifest. At length, shortly before our departure 
I took thought to ask Monsieur le Cur6 or the vicar 
of La Rochelle, if one of his colleagues could not be 
found who would be willing to come with us; which 
I hoped could easily be done, for there were plenty of 
them about, and furthermore, as we were in a seaport 
town, I thought they would have been glad to sail 
the billows. But I could get nothing out'^of them, 
and was given as excuse that none would go on such a 
voyage, unless impelled by great zeal and piety and 



M The Makers of Maine 

that I would do well to address myself to the Jesuit 
Fathers. This we could not then do, since our vessel 
was almost loaded. In this connection I have fre- 
quently heard M. de Poutrincourt say, that when he 
was at court after his first voyage, a court Jesuit asked 
him what hopes could be cherished for the conversion 
of the tribes of New France, and whether they were 
numerous. To this he replied that one might win one 
hundred thousand souls for Jesus Christ, giving a 
definite number instead of speaking vaguely. This 
good father, making light of the number, thereupon 
exclaimed with wonder, "Is that all?" as if such a 
matter was not worth one man's time. And yet 
were there the hundreth part thereof or even less, 
it should not be left to perish. The Good Shepherd 
having among an hundred sheep one that had gone 
astray, left the ninety-nine in order to go in search 
of the hundreth (Matt. XVIII., vv. 12,13.) We are 
taught, and I hold it true, that if there had been but 
one man to save, our Lord Jesus Christ would not 
have disdained to have come for his sake, as He has 
done for the sake of us all. And so we must not hold 
these poor tribes so cheap, even though they do not 
swarm in numbers as in Paris or Constantinople." 

In these statements and reflections Lescarbot 
shows himself a little insincere; first, because when he 
wrote the later editions of his History of New France, 
he knew something of the great work the Jesuits were 
doing in the New World; second, because he knew 
that, for all the fervid prayers of the French Protes- 
tant Ministers in their churches in old France, they 
were not knocking on the doors of New France to do 
missionary work in that fertile field. Moreove", 
Lescarbot's relation of the conversation had by Pout- 
rincourt with a certain Jesuit at court (whom, by the 



Marc Lescarbot 65 

way, the editors of the Champlain society edition of 
Lescarbot's history say was the celebrated Pere Cotton 
confessor of Henry IV) shows clearly that Lescarbot 
wilfully misinterpreted the Jesuit Father's reply to 
Poutrincourt's estimate of one hundred thousand 
Indians waiting to be saved. We ourselves now know 
that was an exaggeration of the number, and the wise 
Jesuit suspected likewise, and we can easily enough 
picture to ourselves his smile and raising of his eye- 
brows as he replied, — "So! one hundred thousand, is 
that all?" 

And again, we read with wonder Lescarbot's 
extraordinary request that the Church permit him to 
carry with him to the New World the blessed bread 
of the Eucharist, that he, a layman might feed him- 
self upon it, and administer it to others of the company 
who might want to receive it while there, no priest 
being with them to celebrate the holy Sacrifice of the 
Mass. If he had been an ignorant, unlearned man, 
one might overlook the matter; but he was not merely 
an educated and well informed man, but as we know 
well, and as his writings prove, if we had no other 
evidence, he was a man well trained in theology and 
Church history, far beyond the attainments of the 
ordinary layman of his times, or of any time. These 
are his words upon this matter: — 

"Seeing that I had made no progress by asking 
for some one in orders to administer to us the sacra- 
ments, whether during our journey, or after we had 
landed, I bethought me of the ancient custom of the 
Christians on their journeys, who took with them the 
blessed bread of the Eucharist, and this they did be- 
cause they did not everywhere find priests to adminis- 
ter this sacrament to them, since the world was at 
that time full of paganism or of heresy. In so much 



56 The Makers of Maine 

that it was well called the viaticum, the provision for 
the way, since when they went on their way, they 
carried it with them; and yet I agree that this term is 
to be understood spiritually. And considering that 
we might be brought to this necessity, since only one 
priest had remained in the plantation of New France 
(and his death was announced to us on our arrival,) I 
asked if they would do unto us as to the ancient Christ- 
ians, who were not less wise than we. But I was told 
that this was done in those days for considerations 
which no longer exist. I pointed out that Satyrus 
the brother of St. Ambrose, when on a sea-voyage, 
made use of this spiritual medicine (as we read in 
the funeral oration pronounced by the said St. Am- 
brose) which he carried in orario, which I take to mean 
in a cloth of linen or tafifeta; and well for him that he 
did, for when shipwrecked he escaped on a broken 
plank of his vessel. But herein I was put off, as in 
everything else. This gave me cause for wonder, and 
it seemed to me to show the great rigor to put us in 
worse condition than the early Christians. For the 
Eucharist is in no way different today from what it 
was then, and if they held it precious, we did not in- 
tend in asking for it to pay it less regard." 

Those words, showing as they do a mind well in- 
formed, show also a great insincerity, for he knew well 
that his request could not be granted, and he asked it 
only for the purpose of having it refused. 



CHAPTER VII 
The First French and Indian Alliance 

I have once before spoken of the courage of these 
early explorers to brave the dangers of the northern 
Atlantic in every season of the year with these small 
ships. Lescarbot did not seem to realize any danger; but 
he appreciated the courage of the sailors. He says: 
"But I cannot pass unnoticed the wonderful courage 
possessed by good sailors amid these conflicts of wind 
storm and tempest. While the ship is borne aloft 
upon mountains of water, and thence glides down as 
it were into the most profound depths of the world, 
they climb upon the rigging not only to the cross-trees 
and to the top of the main-mast, but also without a 
ladder to the top of another mast which is attached 
to the former, holding on merely by the strength of 
their arms and legs entwined about the top-mast 
rigging." It is interesting to us, and we read with 
a smile, Lescarbot's puzzled attempt to account for 
what we know was the Gulf Stream. He says: "But 
here in passing I must notice a matter which seems to 
me wonderful and meet for investigation; about this 
same day, June 18th, we found for the space of three 
days the water of the sea quite warm, and our wine in 
the hold was the same, though the air was no warmer 
than before." He ascribes the phenomenon to the ice- 
bergs, which, as he says,huddle the warm waters together 
in a region by themselves. But as usual, liberal- 
minded as he is, he says: "Such is my opinion, which 
does not hinder anyone else from having his own." 



58 The Makers of Maine 

In the long period of history which extends from 
the first settlements of the French and of the English, 
the period commonly called the Colonial, we read a 
great deal about the "French and Indian Alliances" 
although of course it is not denied that there were 
certain alliances between those of the Indian nations 
who were hostile to the French allies, and the English. 
It is undeniable, however, that the French and the 
Indians were allies during those many years from the 
earliest time to the fall of Quebec. It is interesting, 
therefore, to find the first alliance and fix its date. 
I think that Marc Lescarbot relates the history of that 
first alliance; and that the date was the summer of 
the year 1606, and the place, one of the Islands of 
Casco Bay. De Poutrincourt contracted the alliance 
in behalf of the French. Lescarbot devotes but 
few words to the fact in passing, but from his few 
words we can see that it must have been made in all 
due form and with all the usual ceremonies. We will 
quote the words of Lescarbot: "Let us return to M. 
de Poutrincourt, whom we have left on the island of 
St. Croix. After holding a review there, and treating 
tenderly the Indians who were present, he went in 
four days to Pentegoet (the Penobscot River), which 
is the spot so well known under the name of Norum- 
bega. So long a time for the journey there is not 
needed, but he halted on the way to refit his boat, 
for which purpose he had brought with him a lock- 
smith and a carpenter and store of planks. Sailing 
through the islands at the mouth of the river he came 
to Kinebeki (now the Kennebec), where his boat 
was in danger through the swift currents caused by 
the nature of the place. On this account he did not 
stop, but passed on to Marchin Bay (now Casco Bay) 
so called after an Indian Chief, who at the arrival of 



The First French and Indian Alliance 59 

the said gentleman began to cry out in a loud voice, 
"He! He!" to which a like cry was made. He re- 
sponded by asking in his own tongue, 'who are ye?' 
and was told that they were friends. Thereupon, to 
win him over, M. de Poutrincourt made a treaty of 
friendship with him, and gave him presents of knives, 
hatchets, and matachiaz, i.e., scarves, nacklaces, and 
armlets made of chaplets, or of tubes of white and 
blue glass, whereat he was well content, and also at 
the alliance, which the said M. de Poutrincourt made 
with him, seeing clearly how firm a support it would 
be to him." 

Here, then, in Casco Bay was the first of that 
long line of alliances which were of so much advantage 
to the French, and such an obstacle to the English, 
indeed so hateful were they to the latter that for 
many generations, even down to within the memory 
of those now living the descendants of those English 
settlers have been taught as children, and in turn 
passed the lesson on to their children, generation by 
generation, that the French and Indians were allies 
by the very nature of their character and disposition, 
than the one were as cruel and blood-thirsty as the 
other. Thus do ancient enmities perpetuate themselves 
in the minds of the people, and hatred and prejudice 
become history. 

Let us turn now to a pleasanter reflection in- 
spired by reading Lescarbot's relation. On the same 
journey in which the alliance was made, Poutrincourt's 
company made a discovery which greatly pleased 
them. At the mouth of the Saco River they came 
upon an island on which they found grape-vines 
growing in great profusion. This was a glad sight 
to the Frenchmen, lovers of wine as they were. It 
was the first time that they had found the grape of 



60 The Makers of Maine 

any quality. We know that this island was the one 
now called Richmond, and it has long been noted for 
its vines. 

It will be remembered that the Norsemen who 
sailed along this coast so many centuries before were 
likewise impressed by the discovery somewhere on the 
coast of good grapes, so much so that the Saga pre- 
served the story of how the German, who was one of the 
company, came running, crying "Weintrauben, wein- 
trauben," and the others thought that he had mo- 
mentarily lost possession of his sanity. From this 
discovery the Norsemen named the country, "Vinland" 
and we know not but this spot at the mouth of the 
Saco may be the identical neighborhood in which the 
Norsemen made their settlement. 

Another event occurred on this journey of Pout- 
rincourt's company which carries us back in memory 
to those ancient Norse vikings. The French had 
one of the very few fights with the Indians that Lescar- 
bot was obliged to relate. The company had pro- 
ceeded farther south along the coast, when, an acci- 
dent happening to the long boat, Poutrincourt was 
obliged to have it hauled up on shore for repairs. 
The harbor was bad, being full of shoals and dangerous 
currents. A large company of Indians appeared on 
the scene, and as their manner was so apparently 
hostile, the French did not attempt any friendly over- 
tures, but drove them away summarily. After the 
boat was repaired, Poutrincourt ordered all the men 
aboard, as the hostile Indians were still in the neigh- 
borhood. Five of the company disobeyed orders and 
remained in camp on the shore the night before the 
morning on which they were intending to make their 
departure. Early at dawn the Indians came silently 
and fell upon the sleeping and defenseless five. Two 



The First French and Indian Alliance 61 

were killed outright before the alarm could be given. 
The other three ran to the shore crying out to their 
friends in the boat. The man on guard in the boat, 
hearing the out-cry, gave the alarm, — "To arms, to 
amis, our friends are being murdered." At once the 
men in the boat leaped from their beds, and without 
taking time to d ess, but -natchmg up thei" arms, 
the y piled into the skiffs and pulled to the shore as hard 
as they could. Although but ten reached the shore 
from the first skiff, the Indians did not dare to face them, 
but turned and made oft as fast as they could. Lescar- 
bot says that they were terrified by the fierce appear- 
ance of the French, likening them to the faithful of 
God to whose faces he gives a mysterious aspect which 
strikes terror to their enemies. But it is not at all un- 
likely that the savages concluded on the instant that 
the white men, who were so ready to fight that they 
leaped to the conflict in their shirts, would prove in- 
vincible, and that it would be a hopeless contest to 
oppose them. De Poutrincourt decided that it would 
be useless to pursue them, so he had graves dug for those 
who had been killed. Two were killed at once, as just 
related, two died later from their wounds, and the 
fifth, as Lescarbot well says, would have been far 
better to have fallen then, because he was the man, 
Du Val, who lived to join the settlement later at Que- 
bec, and was hanged there by order of Champlain for 
being the ring-leader in the conspiracy against Cham- 
plain. The story of the conspiracy is related by Cham- 
plain himself in his book and Lescarbot also tells it in 
his history. 

They buried the dead and erected a cross at the 
grave; which, to Lescarbot's great horror, the savages 
pulled down as soon as the boat got away from shore, and 
not content with that sacrilege, they desecrated the grave, 



62 THE MAKERS OF MAINE 

dug up the dead bodies, took off the clothes from the 
bodies and putting the clothing on their own persons 
danced about with great glee. These Frenchmen, 
however, were men of determination, for they at once 
put back to the shore, drove the Indians off, placed the 
bodies back in the grave and again set up the cross. 
This time probably, it remained, for the Indians had no 
further reason to desecrate the graves, having obtained 
the clothing which satisfied them. 

The thought brought to our minds by this relation 
is that almost exactly six hundred years before, and 
almost in this exact spot, surely within a compara- 
tively few miles, the Norsemen engaged in battle 
with the ancestors of these bloodthirsty savages, who 
attacked strangers without cause, and from pure 
enmity only, and, as the Sagas tell the story, one Norse- 
man was killed ; but he was the leader, a brave man who 
died like a Christian, — Thorwald son of Eric. And 
Thorwald's last command to his followers was to bury 
him on the promontory and to place at the head of his 
grave a cross, so that all travelers might see that there 
lay the ashes of a Christian soldier. Many years 
passed since that cross was set up, many years passed 
since it decayed and crumbled; and now a second cross 
is set up in the same region to mark the resting place 
of another Christian; but unhappily in the stormy 
period of history which is beginning, many such crosses 
are to be erected over the country before the wars oc- 
occasioned by the coming of a higher civilization than 
existed before should be finished and peace reign. 

Let us consider a tale that lightens the history of 
fights and death, trouble and hardship which accom- 
panied all these early expeditions. I have said that 
Lescarbot was a genius in many ways. As Charle- 
voix truly said, he was as competent to found a colony 



The First French and Indian Alliance 63 

as to write the history of one; but it was in the field of 
letters, the domain of the fine arts, that his genius 
shown the most brightly, for his patron saints were 
the Muses, and although it is true enough that he did 
much to keep the company of Frenchmen in good spirits 
by his inventions under the patronage of the Muses, 
yet it cannot be doubted that he was most happily en- 
gaged when he was writing a poem to dedicate to New 
France, or an ode on the birthday of some one of the 
Royal Family, or best of all an impromptu theatrical 
entertainment to enliven the company and give every- 
body a laugh. 

For instance, when it was time for de Poutrin- 
court to be expected home at Port Royal from this 
journey down the coast which has been described, 
(Lescarbot did not accompany that exploring expedi- 
tion, but by request of de Poutrincourt remained at 
the fort), he wrote and got up a little theatrical enter- 
entertainment in honor of the event of the leader's 
return. As he says: "I bethought me to go out to 
meet him with some jovial spectacle, and so we did." 
And we may be sure that it was jovially received, for 
the verses are preserved to us, Lescarbot having put it 
among the various poems which he wrots and published 
under the tittb, "Muses of New France." He called 
this one, "Neptune's Theatre." 

During the winter that now followed, he kept 
up the spirits of all by writing a number of "jovial 
spectacles," in which all had to take part. But most 
interesting was his "Ordre de Bon Temps," which is 
so famous that no historian who pretends to write 
any account at all of the Port Royal settlement ever 
fails to allude to it. This Order had two objects, to 
keep up the spirits of all during the long winter in the 
wilderness, and to make sure that they had a good 



64 The Makers of Maine 

table bountifully supplied with the best, and cooked in 
the best manner possible. He gives Champlain credit 
for proposing the idea, but it was he who took charge 
and made it a success. All belonged to the order, and 
each man took his turn at acting as Chief Steward 
for a fortnight. And, as he says, there was no 
caf6 in Paris, however celebrated, that served a better 
table .The dinner in the evening was the chief meal 
of the day, and was every day made sort of banquet. 
They all march in to the table each man carrying a 
dish, the Chief Steward at the head with his wand of 
office, and the collar of the Order about his neck. 
After the dinner the Chief Steward handed over to his 
successor in office the collar of the order with great 
pomp and ceremony, each drinking to the other. 

It would be interesting to copy for the reader 
some of the verses composed by Lescarbot during his 
residence at Port Royal, but as they are written, of 
course, in French, no translation could be given which 
would convey the true spirit of the original, for our 
historian, as has been intimated, was something of a 
real poet, and no mere rhymster. 



CHAPTER VIII 

De Poutrincourt and Lescarbot Leave 
Acadia and Return to France 

Now we come to the closing days of the de Monts 
and de Poutrincourt expedition and attempt at settle- 
ment, and the return to France, which obliged Lescar- 
bot, with great regret, to leave this country which he 
had learned to love better than his own "belle France." 
The beautiful season of spring had come, and on the 
morning of Ascension Day they received the bad news 
from France. 

The learned editors of the Champlain Society 
edition of Marc Lescarbot's History of New France, 
have made an error in a foot-note explanatory of the 
date of Ascension Day. It should be said to their 
credit that it is the only error that they have made in 
the whole edition, and they deserve the lasting grati- 
tude of all students of the history of this period 
for their scholarly work; but this error is so glaring as 
to be almost laughable. They say that Ascension Day, 
the date of which in that year Champlain has fixed as 
May 24th, is the day "often called Holy Thursday." 
If they had said that it is the day often called Christ- 
mas, they could not have been farther from the truth. 
To return, our Frenchmen learned that their 
company had been dissolved "contrary to honor and 
duty," as Lescarbot puts it. The Dutch, it seems, 
had during the previous year, led by a French traitor 
named La Jeunesse, carried off the furs from the St. 



66 The Makers of Maine 

Lawrence, which resulted in loss to the company, and 
they could no longer furnish the money needed for the 
support of the colony. And further, the King's 
Council had revoked the ten years' monopoly of de 
Monts. The blow was all the harder, for if they could 
have been supported but one year longer the colony 
would have then paid for itself, and would no longer 
require assistance. It wanted only one more year 
to get on its feet. 

Great as was the regret of the French, that is, of 
the leaders of the expedition, their grief at leaving was 
not to be compared with the grief of the Sagamore 
Membertou and his followers, who had learned to love 
the Frenchmen, and were depending on them as allies 
against their enemies, the Armouchiquois Indians. 
Lescarbot says: "He (de Poutrincourt ) was ready to 
say adieu to Port Royal, when on a sudden Membertou 
and his band arrived, victorious over the Armouchi- 
quois. And since I have given a description of this war 
in French verse, I shall not fill my paper with it, being 
desirous rather to cut short my tale than to seek new 
matter. At the request of the said Membertou he re- 
mained yet a day longer. But it was piteous at his 
departure to see the tears of these poor folk, whom 
we had always kept in hope that some of us would 
remain with them. At last they were compelled to 
promise them that next year we would send households 
and families to dwell permanently in their land, and to 
teach them trades in order to help them to live like us, 
which promise did in some sort comfort them." 

And so also with us, although there are many more 
interesting happenings which we would like to discuss, 
it is time to cut short our tale of this expedition, for 
there are many more interesting and strange events 
which happened later. And especially, with the com- 



De POUTRINCOURT AND LeSCARBOT LeAVE 67 

ing of the Jesuit Fathers, a new period of history 
begins. 

Many reasons have been ascribed by various 
writers of the history of the de Monts — de Poutrin- 
ocurt expedition for the failure of the colony; and of 
the failure of the later settlement. It is especially 
interesting to compare the Port Royal colony with 
that of the Pilgrims which came later and succeeded. 
Doubtless, the failure may be ascribed to more than 
one cause. But the strongest assurance of the success 
of a colony is the presence of women, the wives and 
mothers of the men who come to make homes in a new 
land; and likewise the greatest weakness of a colony, 
the most certainly is it doomed in advance, is the ab- 
sence of those same women. 

The names of de Monts, de Poutrincourt, and Les- 
carbot, become very familiar to us in reading the his- 
tory of this period. We know a good deal about the 
character of these men from their writings, as well as 
from the writings of others who followed soon after 
them. But, one of the greatest puzzles of the history 
of this period is to determine satisfactorily whether we 
are to count these men on the side of the Catholic 
Church or against it. De Monts, we know, was a 
Calvinist, but as to de Poutrincourt and Lescarbot, — 
they are assumed by historians to have been Catholics; 
their acts, however, considered as a whole throw much 
doubt on that assumption. Charlevoix, the Jesuit writ- 
er of a history of New France, and himself one of the 
actors in that greatest of dramas enacted in this half 
of the world, speaks very confidently of de Poutrincourt. 
He says: "M. de Poutrincourt was a very worthy 
man, sincerely attached to the Catholic religion; but 
the calumnies of the so-called Reformers had produced 
an impression on his mind, and he was fully determined 



68 The Makers of Maine 

not to take them (the Jesuit Fathers) to Port Royal." 
We not only have good reason to doubt Father Charle- 
voix' sincere statement that Poutrincourt was attached 
to the Catholic religion; but, as I have mentioned be- 
fore, we know that he could not have been acquainted 
with the later editions of Lescarbot's History of New 
France, or he would have seriously moderated his ex- 
travagant praise of Lescarbot. He seems from his 
writings not to have fully appreciated the conspiracy 
that existed among de Monts, de Poutrincourt, and 
Lescarbot, to discredit the Jesuit Fathers, prevent 
them from coming to the new country, and in very 
truth, prevent the Indians from being converted to 
Catholicity. 

This conspiracy shows itself to careful readers of 
history in various aspects. To refer again to Lescar- 
bot, — whose history we reiterate is one of the most in- 
teresting and on the whole reliable of all the histories 
written in those days, you will remember how he rather 
hypocritically rebuked the Jesuit Father Cotton, con- 
fessor to the King, for disbelieving the exaggerated 
number of Indians waiting to be converted in the new 
world. You will also remember that he, a well educated 
man, and exceptionally well read in theology, asked to 
be allowed to carry the consecrated host of the sacrament 
of the Eucharist with him on the journey to the new 
world, he, a layman, knowing that such athing had 
never been done since the first years of Christianity. 
And finally, as I will mention in more detail later, he 
addressed a letter to the authorities of the Church 
in which he gave a list of the extraordinary baptisms 
which had been administered to the Indians during 
his residence at Port Royal, while the only priest who 
was with them was the secular priest, Fleche, about 
whom Lescarbot writes in the most flippant and dis- 



De Poutrincorrt and Lescarbot Leave 69 

respectful manner. That list of baptisms had been 
almost a standing joke of historians ever since; and we 
have good reason to believe that De Monts, de Poutrin- 
court, Lescarbot and Fleche, considered the whole 
matter of the baptisms as a huge joke, especially so, 
when we read the names of Saints and Biblical characters 
which were conferred on the unsuspecting and ignorant 
savages. 



CHAPTER IX 

BlARD AND MASS£ ARE CHOSEN FROM JESUIT 

Volunteers to go to Acadia 

We read, in Fr. Charlevoix' History of New France 
that the King, on confirming the grant of Port Royal to 
de Poutrincourt, notified de Poutrincourt that it was 
time to labor for the conversion of the Indians, and 
that it was his wish that the Jesuits should be taken 
over there. Fr. Cotton, confessor to the King, was a 
Jesuit. He notified his superiors of the wish of the 
king. At once many of the order volunteered for the 
service in the new world, but only two were selected. 
The names of these two Jesuits figure on many pages 
of history. No reliable history has ever been written, 
by Catholic or Protestant, which does not pay high 
credit to those two men, not only for their labors, but 
for the romance of their life in this new and strange 
country and for the sufferings which they were fated 
to undergo. The two were Father Peter Biard, then 
professor at Lyons, and Father Ennemond Mass6, so- 
cius (as Charlevoix says) of Father Cotton. 

We shall quote from their "Relations" later, 
words which will describe their experiences from the 
very beginning in France through their toils in Acadia, 
their unhappy captivity at the hands of the English, 
their unmerited sufferings in Virginia, their long and 
miserable voyages and their final deliverance from their 
enemies. Their own words telling in simple and 
unaffected manner the obstacles which were thrown 



BAIRD and MASSfi 71 

in their way from the very first in their native country 
of France by their own countrymen will be related; 
but for the moment, let us turn to the relation of Charl- 
evoix and de Champlain. 

Charlevoix says: "Father Biard, at the commence- 
ment of the year ((1608), proceeded to Bordeaux, 
where he was assured the embarkation would take place. 
He was much surprised to see no preparation there; 
and he waited in vain for a whole year. The King, 
informed of this, reproached de Poutrincourt sharply, 
and the latter pledged his word to the King that he 
would no longer defer obeying his orders. He actually 
prepared to go; but as he said nothing of embarking the 
missionaries, Fr. Cotton paid him a visit, to bring him 
to do so in a friendly way. Poutrincourt begged him 
to be good enough to postpone it till the following year, 
as Port Royal was by no means in a condition to receive 
the Fathers. So frivolous a reason was regarded by 
Father Cotton as a refusal, but he did not deem it ex- 
pediant to press the matter or inform the king. M. 
de Poutrincourt accordingly sailed for Acadia; and with 
a view of showing the court that the ministry of the 
Jesuits was not necessary in the conversion of the heath- 
en, he had scarcely arrived before he sent the king a 
list of twenty-five Indians baptized in haste." 

As these chapters are tales of history, rather than 
a detailed and consecutive history of the period, and the 
writer's intention has been throughout to select events 
and especially characters, of history, which are inter- 
esting and romantic, let us now present another strange 
and interesting character, who from his whole life spent, 
as it was in this land, we may justly say was one of the 
makers of what is now Maine. This man is the young 
Biencourt, son of de Poutrincourt. At the time when 
his father appointed him vice-admiral and vice-govern- 



72 The Makers of Maine 

or general of the Port Royal Colony, he was only nine- 
teen years of age. But in every respect save years, 
he was a man fitted to lead and command. We might 
say, however, that as a leader he had one fault, — he 
was hot tempered, and had conceived a prejudice 
against the Jesuit Fathers, which helped to make the 
lives of Fathers Biard and Masse very hard and dis- 
agreeable. 

In February 1610 Poutrincourt sailed again to 
Port Royal, not taking the Jesuits, as I have just before 
mentioned, in the quotation from Charlevoix. Mem- 
bertou and his Indian subjects had kept everything 
at Port Royal in good order during the absence of the 
French, the buildings were preserved, and even the fields 
had been kept up by the Indians. This latter fact is 
the strongest proof of the devotion of these Indians 
to the French, for as a rule the Indians had little regard 
for cultivated fields, the chase being their preferred mode, 
of obtaining a livelihood, they looked down upon regu- 
lar cultivation of the soil as beneath a warrior and a 
savage gentleman. 

The next July Poutrincourt sent his son, Biencourt, 
back to France to obtain more supplies. The assasin- 
ation of Henry IV in the meantime, made great changes, 
and was certainly a severe blow to the success of the 
French colonization of Acadia. When Biencourt re- 
turned from France to Port Royal he carried the Jesuit 
Fathers, Biard and Masse with him, much against his 
will, as will be shown later from the relation of the 
Jesuits. We may say now that during all the period of 
the residence of these Fathers in Acadia, Biencourt 
kept up a continual quarrel with them, except at one 
time just before the Jesuits sailed from Port Royal 
to found their new colony at St. Sauveur, which ended 
so quickly and so disastrously at the hands of the pirate. 



BAIRD and MASSe 73 

Argall; at that time, as is related by the Jesuits, Bien- 
court made peace with them, and made his confession 
and received communion. 

This young man was the first of the French settlers 
here to spend his whole life in this land and to die here 
as a settled colonist. His life must have been one 
long romance, and it is a great pity that no account of 
it has been preserved to us. But no account was ever 
written. He and his friend who shared the life in the 
wilderness with him, Charles de la Tour, were men of 
action, not writers, and they had no inducement, as 
had the Jesuits, to commit to writing their daily lives. 
The name of La Tour afterwards figures much in the 
history of this land but it is not known 
that he ever so much as wrote one 
letter to friends in France telling of the life of himself 
and Biencourt among the Indians. When the Port 
Royal colony was finally abandoned by Poutrincourt, 
his son, Biencourt, refused to return to France with 
his father. He and his friend wandered about from 
place to place in the wilderness, living with the Indians. 
Being natural leaders, they probably became leaders 
of the Indians. They lived their life and died their 
death. 



CHAPTER X 

How THE Jesuit Relations Came to be 
Written and Their Historical Value 

In the preceding chapters mention has frequently 
been made of the Jesuit missionaries, and I have prom- 
ised to point out the important influence which their 
coming had upon the course of Maine history. I come 
now to the stage when it becomes necessary to develop 
the subject in some detail. 

It is to be presumed that most of my readers are 
familiar with the histories of Francis Parkman, especially 
his "Pioneers of New France," and his "Jesuits in North 
America." It is certainly worth one's while to read 
both of these books. But it is equally certain that it 
would not be wise to place them in the hands of school 
children. For, although Parkman will always receive 
great credit for his scholarly researches and for his 
interesting style of writing, yet his well known anti- 
Catholic prejudices forbid his books being used as 
manuals for students of history. He pays many en- 
thusiastic compliments to the Society of Jesus for its 
remarkable attainments, but it would seem as though 
the ill-natured devil of bigotry which lurked ever in 
the background, in the recesses of his brilliant mind, 
could not be kept in check by his better nature, his 
instinct of the scholar, but it continually leaps forth 
to grasp every opportunity, to take advantage of every 
opening, to cast the poisoned dart of black and ugly 
religious hatred at that Order whose members he admits 



The Jesuit Relations 75 

to be heroes and saints. Whenever there is a dispute 
among the witnesses as to the motives which actuated 
a Jesuit, he seems irresistably impelled to believe the 
worst. Whenever the contemporaries of a Jesuit 
differed in their opinion of his character, as in the case 
of Father -Biard, he eagerly sides with the traducer 
and defamer. 

Yet his ^^Titings abound in expression of enthusiastic 
admiration of the Society. No stronger words of com- 
mendation could be used than the opening words of the 
second chapter of his "Jesuits in North America," — 
"It was an evil day for new-born Protestantism when 
a French artilleryman fired the shot that struck down 
Ignatius Loyola in the breach of Pampeluna. A proud 
noble, an aspiring soldier, a graceful courtier, an ardent 
and daring gallant was metamorphosed by that stroke 
into the zealot whose brain engendered and brought 
forth the mighty Society* of Jesus." 

Francis Parkman, like all other historians who write 
concerning this period of history which we are consider- 
ing, to obtain his material was obliged to go back to 
the writings of the Jesuit Fathers, the so-called "Jesuit 
Relations." These are the sources, the fountain heads. 
No other information is in existence. Indeed, it is 
no exaggeration to say that the "Relations" are of 
incalcuable value to American historians. If they had 
never been written, or if they had been destroyed before 
being published, that interesting and important period 
of our history would be at this day absolutely a closed 
book. 

The historian, Bancroft, says: "not a cape was 
turned, not a river entered, but a Jesuit led the way." 
And fortunately for histor>% the rules of the Society 
required every Jesuit missionary to write a daily account 
of his doings and send regular reports to his superior. 



76 The Makers of Maine 

Annually, between the years 1632 and 1673, the superiors 
made up a narrative, or "Relation," which they for- 
warded to the Provincial of the Order in France. 

It should be remembered that the writers of these 
"Relations" were men of trained intellect, acute ob- 
servers, and practised in the art of writing. They 
had left the most highly civilized country of their 
times to go into the heart of the American wilderness 
and win to the Christian faith the fiercest savages 
known to history. To gain these savages it was first 
necessary to know them intimately — their speech, 
their habits, their very manner of thought 

The style of the narratives is always simple and 
direct. Never does the narrator descend to self-glori- 
fication or dwell upon the details of his continual martyr- 
dom. We gain from his pages a vivid picture of life 
in the primeval forest as he lived it; we seem to see 
him upon the long canoe journeys, squatted among 
his dusky companions working his passage at the paddles, 
and carrying cargoes upon the trail. We see him 
the patient butt and scorn of the savage camp, some- 
times deserted in the heart of the wilderness to make 
his way alone as best he can. We find him in some 
far-away Indian village working against hope to save 
the unbaptized, facing the jealous rage of his rival, the 
"medicine man," and at last meeting the martyr's 
end with the fortitude of the saint. Then, consider that 
the "Relations" were written for the most part in 
Indian camps subject to every conceivable distraction. 
Myriads of mosquitos tormented the writer, he was 
surrounded by squalor and filth, his ears were deafened 
by the shrieks of children, the scolding of squaws and 
the foul talk of the Indian men. Often he was fatigued 
with excessive labor and lack of proper food, suffering 
from wounds and disease, mistreated by his hosts who 



The Jesuit Relations 17 

often acted more like jailors than hosts, and who in 
their ignorant superstition regarded the art of writing 
as magic which might bring calamity upon the camp. 

The "Relations" have always been a rare collec- 
tion, highly prized by collectors of books. They were 
published in France under the direction of the Provincial 
of the Order. They commence with Father Le Jeune's 
"Brieve Relation du (1632); and after that a duodecimo 
volume, bound in vellum, was issued annually from the 
press of Sebastien Cramoisy, Paris, until 1673 when 
they were discontinued. This is the famous and very 
rare Cramoisy Edition of forty volumes. In 1858 the 
Canadian government reprinted the Cramoisy in three 
large octavo volumes; these also are now rare. Dr. 
John G. Shea, author of the History of the Catholic 
Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States, 
complied by Cramoisy series during the years 1857-1866, 
but the edition was limited to one hundred copies, and 
it is now difficult to obtain. 

Parkman tells his readers of the great difficulties 
under which he labored in getting together the material 
for his own histories from the "Relations," for many 
of the "Relations," he says, he had to rely upon translated 
copies made for him in Paris and Rouen. He deserves 
credit for his labors, but if he had been content to 
quote from the "Relations," and had kept his personal 
point of view and his religious prejudices out of sight, 
his histories would have greater value. 

It has often happened in the history of Christianity 
that the propgaation of the faith would have suffered a 
grievous set-back and failed temporarily, in spite of 
the energy of men, had it not been for the piety and 
self-sacrifice of women. The history of the bringing 
of the Christian faith to the Indians is one of those 
examples. The name of Madame de Guercheville, 



t8 The Makers of Maine 

belongs with those of Biard, Le Jeune, and de Brebeuf. 
If it had not been for her energetic efforts in raising 
money to defray the expenses of sending the first Jesuits 
to this country, the conversion of the Indians would 
have been deferred for many years. 

Madame de Guercheville was one of the famous 
beauties of the court of France, she was also one of the 
most influential women in France and a devout Catholic. 
It was she who fitted out, with her own money and the 
money that she raised by subscription, the ship which 
carried the first Jesuits to Acadia and Maine. I will 
quote the words of Father Joseph Jouvency from his 
"Initium Canidicae Missionis et Primi Fructus:" 

"Already was the undertaking progressing very 
favorably when Henry IV,more solicitous for religion than 
for commerce, resolved, in the year 1608, to introduce 
Christian rites into this part of the New World, and asked 
members of the Society to undertake this Apostolic enter- 
prise. Upon being informed of the plan of the King, and 
ordered to choose as soon as possible energetic priests 
who could lay solidly the foundation of so great a work, 
Father Coton, the confessor of the King, informed the 
Commander of the Society. From the whole number, 
not only of youths but also of old men, who sought 
this laborious duty, there were chosen Father Peter 
Biard, of Grenoble, a professor of theology in the College 
of Lyons, and Father Enemond Masse, of Lyons. The 
unforseen death of the King delayed this auspicious 
enterprise, and diminished the enthusiasm of the friends 
of the Society, who were providing a ship and other 
necessaries for the voyage. But the pious Coton, 
unconquered by adversity, brought in the authority 
of the queen, in order that he might overcome the 
difficulties in his way. As a result, the time was set 
for their departure, and the Fathers hastened to Dieppe, 



The Jesuit Relations 79 

in order that they might sail thence for New France. 
But, behold, suddenly an unexpected obstacle. Their 
ship belonged to Poutrincourt, a French nobleman; 
it was, however, subject to the control of two Calvin- 
istic merchants, since they had incurred no light expense 
toward providing her with equipments. As soon as 
they heard that members of the Society were to be 
embarked upon her, they refused to allow her to leave 
the port. The authority of the queen was invoked; 
her commands were reiterated. They answered that 
they would not refuse admission to any other sort of 
priests, but that they were unwilling to have anything 
to do with our men. When Coton saw that the stub- 
bornness of the rascals could not be overcome, he ap- 
proached the matter by another way. There was a 
lady distinguished not less for piety than for birth, 
Antoinette de Guercheville. This woman was as 
solicitous for the interests of the mission as for her own ; 
and since she had acquired an uncommon influence 
among many, because of her reputation for integrity, 
she quickly collected a large sum of money, by means 
of which the heretical merchants were repaid the amount 
which they had spent in equipping the ship, so although 
the merchants were disappointed and unwilling, the 
Fathers were admitted. But because of the interven- 
ing delay, they did not sail until the 26th of January, 
when the storms of winter caused a raging sea. On 
this account the voyage was of four months duration, 
although ordinarily of two, and was terrible because of 
disease within and tempests without." 

Thus came the Jesuits to Maine. The adventure 
of these men, together with Fr. Biard's own comments 
on them, I shall relate further on. 



CHAPTER XI 

Father Biard Describes His Voyage 
Across the Atlantic 

I closed the last Chapter in which I wrote concerning 
the embarking of the first Jesuits at Dieppe for the 
voyage to these shores in January 1611, with a quota- 
tion from the Relations of Rev. Fr. Jouvency, S, J., 
in which he told how Madame de Guercheville bought 
out a share of the Huguenot merchants of Dieppe who 
had refused to allow Jesuits to sail in their ships, and 
made a present of it to the Society of Jesus. I will 
commence this chapter by quoting the closing words 
of the letter of Fr. Biard S. J. to the Very Rev. Claude 
Aquaviva, General of the Society at Rome, written on 
the eve of his departure from Dieppe: 

"So now, my Very Reverend and good Father, you 
see how entirely the malice of the evil one and of his 
tools has been turned to our advantage. At first we 
asked only a little corner in the vessel at their price. 
Now we are masters of it. We were going into a dreary 
wilderness without much hope of permanent help; and 
we have already received enough to begin laying the 
foundation. We were to enrich the heretics by a portion 
of our alms; and now they, of their own accord, refuse to 
profit by an occasion which would benefit them. But I 
believe a great source of their grief is nothing else than 
the triumph of the Lord Jesus; and may heaven grant 
that he always triumph. Amen." 

In his next letter, to the Rev. Fr. Christopher 



Father Biard Describes His Voyage si 

Baltazar, Provincial of the Society at Paris, Fr. Biard 
relates the incidents of the stormy and dangerous pas- 
sage from Dieppe to Port Royal. 

It is wonderful to contemplate, the courage and daring 
of these early explorers and navigators and priests. 
Reflect that the vessels in which Champlain, De Monts, 
Poutrincourt, de Biencourt, and the Jesuits crossed 
the Atlantic many times, by what we call the northern 
course, or what navigators call the Great Circle Track, 
were no larger than Gloucester fishing boats, little 
schooners which we have all seen tied up to the wharves 
in Portland or anchored at Marblehead, vessels in which 
we would hesitate to intrust our lives for a voyage 
to the Banks of Newfoundland. This ship in which 
Frs. Biard and Masse came over — "La Grace de Dieu," 
was so small and so deeply laden that the voyagers 
could lean over the sides and wash their hands in the 
sea. 

What men these explorers and missionaries were. 
Nor were they less remarkable for their imagination 
and foresight than for their courage and daring. We 
take much credit to ourselves that we have such wisdom 
and foresight that we will expend many millions to 
build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Consider 
for a moment that Samuel de Champlain, three hundred 
years ago, conceived and proposed the project of a 
ship canal across Panama. "By such a route" he said, 
"the voyage would be shortened by more than 1500 
leagues, and from Panama to the Strait of Magellan 
it would be one island." 

And this was no dream of Champlain's based on 
sailor's tales, like some of his stories about the grififins 
with the heads of an eagle and the tails of an alligator 
which haunted the jungles of Mexico. To the contrary, 
it was the result of investigation and study on the spot. 



82 The Makers of Maine 

But to return to Father Biard. After hair-breadth 
escapes from shipwreck by storm and by collision with 
icebergs, they came to the Great Banks. Fr. Biard con- 
fesses frankly and naively that he was much surprised 
that the banks were not sand-banks or mud-banks as 
he thought in France, but great sub-marine plateaus 
thirty-five and forty fathoms deep. He says: "On 
i'appelle banc parceque c'est la premierement ofl ven- 
ant des abismes de I'ocean Ton trouve terre avec la 
sonde. Or, sur le bord de ce grand banc, les vagues 
sont I'ordinaire fort furieuses, trois ou quatre lieuses 
durant, et ces trois ou quatre lieues on appelle les Ac- 
ores." Fr. Biard's idea of the location of the 
Azores is rather vague. His notions of geography 
might seem laughable to us; but if we should reprint, 
with these tales some of the maps drawn by Champlain 
of the regions which he had visited, perhaps Fr. Biard 
would be the more readily excused for having a con- 
fused idea of the location of places which he had never 
before visited. 

On the Feast of Pentecost, a very significant date, 
they landed at Port Royal. They found there a settle- 
ment of about twenty persons, and all nearly starved. 
Fr. Biard says: "We all wept at this meeting, which 
seemed almost like a dream. " 

As I have mentioned, the secular priest, Fr. Jesse 
Fleche, whom Poutrincourt had taken with him to 
Port Royal, had baptized about one hundred and 
forty-one Indians, without proper instruction. Les- 
carbot, whose writings always give one the feeling that 
he is laughing in his sleeve, called it a masterpiece 
("chef d'ouevre.") Fr. Biard expresses regret at such 
unseemly haste. He writes that as regards Christ, 
faith, the commandments of God, prayer and the 
sacraments, they know nothing, nor did they know the 



Father Biard Describes His Voyage 83 

sign of the cross or the very name of Christian. "Itaque 
nunce vulgo sciscitantibus nobis," he says in his letter 
to the General of the Order in Rome, January 31, 1612, 
"Christianus es? negat optimus quisque, scire se quid 
rogetur. Mutata interrogatione quaerentibus, bapti- 
zatus es? annuit vero ac propemodum sese jam Nort- 
mannum propuntiat." (The Indians always called 
the French Normans. ) 

Fr. Biard, although regretting the haste in baptiz- 
ing Indians, nevertheless speaks kindly of the secular 
priest, Fleche. He says that the worthy man had 
shown great friendliness to the Jesuits and thanked 
God for their coming, for he had resolved to return to 
France at the first opportunity, and was now free to 
do so. 

Lescarbot, in his "Relation Derniere" gives us a 
list, a strange sort of baptismal registry of the one hun- 
dred and forty or so Indians baptized by Fr. Fleche in 
one year. It is amusing to read the list of names of 
the great ones of France conferred upon the savages. 
Membertou, the chief, they named Henry, after the 
King. His wife and children received the names of 
of the Queen of France and the royal children. Then 
follows a list which reads like a catalogue of all the 
noble families of France. Imagine a naked, dirty and 
bedaubed savage named — Monsieur the Prince of Gon- 
dii another. Monsieur the Duke de Nevers, another 
Monsieur the Prince de Joinville, and an ugly squaw bear- 
ing the names of Madame the Countess de Soissons, 
Madame, the Duchess of Guise, and so on. 

Parkman, in his "Jesuits in North America" com- 
ments at considerable length and with poorly suppres- 
sed glee upon the fact that the first Jesuits found it 
impossible to convey to the savage mind any conception 
of the abstract ideas of faith, charity, justice, etc., and 



S4 The Makers of Maine 

plainly wants his readers to infer that they were lacking 
in common sense not to know that a savage people 
would have no such words in their language, because 
they could form no such concepts in their minds. He 
holds Father Biard up to ridicule for trying to find in the 
Indian language words for faith, justice, wisdom, 
charity. Trinity. To give to his readers such an im- 
pression is quite unfair. The Jesuit understood the 
limitations of the Indian mind and the Indian language. 
These are his own words on the subject. "It is true 
that Monsieur de Biencourt, who understands the 
savage tongue better than any one else here, is filled 
with earnest zeal, and every day takes a great deal of 
trouble to serve as our interpreter. But somehow, as 
soon as we begin to talk about God, he feels as Moses 
did — his mind is bewildered, his throat dry, his tongue 
tied. The reason for this is that the savages have no 
definite religion, magistracy or government, liberal 
or mechanical arts, commercial or civil life, they have 
consequently no words to describe which things they 
have never seen or even conceived. Furthermore, 
rude and untutored as they are, all their conceptions 
are limited to sensible and material things; there is 
nothing abstract, internal, spiritual or distinct." Let- 
tre au R. P. Provincial at Paris, Jan. 31, 1612. He 
thinks it doubtful if they even have any word for "I 
believe," — "Enfin, nous en sommes 1^ encore apr^s 
plusieurs enquestes et travaux, h disputer s'ils ont 
aucune parole qui corresponde diroictement k ce mot 
'Credo,' je croy." 

Could any statement be clearer? And is there any 
excuse for Parkman, to ingeniously place the matter in 
such a light that the reader would inevitably draw the 
inference that the Jesuits seriously tried to find Indian 
words corresponding to the words faith, trinity, etc? 



Father Biard Describes His Voyage 85 

Concerning the nature of the red man's spiritual 
beliefs before he began to feel the influence of Christian 
teaching the following quotation from Father Jouvency 
S. J., although it conveys no really new information to 
the average reader, may be of interest as proof that the 
Jesuits, from the first, understood the Indian mind 
and the limitations of his thought. "There is among 
them no system of religion, or care for it. They honor 
a deity who has no definite character or regular code of 
worship. They perceive, however, through the twi- 
light, as it were, that some deity does exist. What 
each boy sees in his dreams, when his reason begins to 
develop, is to him thereafter a deity, whether it be a 
dog, a bear, or a bird. They often derive their principles 
of life and action from dreams; as, for example, if they 
dream that any person ought to be killed, they do not 
rest until they have caught the man by stealth and 
slain him. It is wearisome to recount the tales which they 
invent concerning the creation of the world. Soothsayers 
and worthless quacks fill with these the idle and 
greedy ears of the people in order that they acquire 
an impious gain. They call some divinity, who is the 
author of evil "Manitou" and fear him exceedingly. 
Beyond doubt it is the enemy of the human race, who 
extorts from some people divine honors and sacrifice. 
Concerning the nature of spirits, they go none the less 
astray. They make them corporeal images which 
require food and drink. They believe that the appointed 
place for souls, to which after death they are to retire, 
is in the direction of the setting sun, and there they 
are to enjoy feasting, hunting and dancing; for these 
pleasures are held in the highest repute among them." 

Father Biard soon decided that the work of con- 
verting the adult Indians must proceed slowly ; that above 
all it was necessary that he himself and his co-workers 



86 The Makers of Maine 

must learn the language thoroughly first and then he 
must depend upon good fortune, or the act of God, for 
favorable opportunities to make impressions, as for 
instance, when an Indian should fall dangerously ill 
and the native "medicine man" had failed to cure him. 
But in the meantime, the wise Father did not fail to 
work among the children and within the period of the 
first year here he was able to write that it comforted 
him to see those little savages, though not yet Christ- 
ians, yet willingly, when they are here carrying the cross 
marching in good order in the processions and funerals 
which occurred. Thus, as he said, they became accus- 
tomed to act as Christians, so that in time they became 
such in reality. 

In October of the year 1611 Father Biard and 
Monsieur de Biencourt, with a company of men made 
a journey to the rivers St. John, St. Croix, and Penobscot 
(called then Pentagoct). Their object was to get news 
of what the English were doing in these parts, and 
Biard's purpose was to further the interests of his 
mission. While on the St. John River, Father 
Biard saw for the first time, the Northern Lights. 
Twilight had ended and the stars had begun to appear 
when suddenly toward the north a part of the heavens 
became blood-red, and this light spreading Httle by 
little, in vivid flashes, moved directly over the Indian 
settlement and there stopped. The red glow was so 
brilliant that the whole river was tinged and made lu- 
minous by it. The phenomenon appeared and disap- 
peared in periods of eight minutes. The French con- 
sidered the display prophetic, and the Indians declared 
that it meant war. 

Arrived at the Kennebec they learned that Captain 
Platrier of the French ship Honfleur, had been taken 
prisoner by two English ships and his release had only 



Father Biard Describes His Voyage s? 

been eflfected by means of presents which amounted to 
ransom. Biencourt instructed Captain Platrier and 
his people that they must oppose the usurpation of the 
English. "For, he said, "It is well known to all, that 
the Great Henry, may God give him absolution, in 
accordance with the right acquired by his predecessors 
and by himself, gave to Mons. de Monts, in the year 
1604, all this region from the 40th to the 46th parallel 
of latitude. Since this donation, the said Seigneur de 
Monts, himself and through Monsieur de Poutrincourt, 
my very honored Father, his lieutenant, and through 
others, has frequently taken actual possession of all 
the country; and this, three or four years before the 
English had ever frequented it, or before anything 
had ever been heard of these claims of theirs." 

They inspected the English fort at the mouth of 
the Kennebec which had been abandoned, and then 
sailed up the river. They paid a visit to Meteournite, 
Chief of the Armouchiquois (called by the English the 
Massachussetts. ) The chief received them in his 
royal regalia. Father Biard made presents of crosses to 
the Indians. They seemed to be much pleased with 
his visit and brought their children to him for his bless- 
ing. 

Biencourt erected a cross, bearing the arms of 
France on the spot where the English had settled in 
1608 and which they had abandoned. Then the com- 
pany sailed back to Port Royal. Father Biard writes that 
he was very glad to be back among these our friendly 
Indians again, "for," he says, "among these we are no 
more obliged to be on our guard than among our own 
servants; and thank God we have never yet been de- 
ceived by them." 

From then till he learns to speak the native lan- 
guages, he writes to his superior, his daily occupations- 



88 The Makers of Maine 

are, to say Mass, to solemnly sing it Sundays and holi- 
days, together with vespers, and frequently the pro- 
cession, to offer public prayers morning and evening, to 
exhort, console, administer the sacraments and bury the 
dead. He chronicles one important and interesting 
event in history. I will quote his own words: "If 
the ground of this New France had feeling, as the poets 
pretend their goddess Tellus had, doubtless it would 
have experienced an altogether novel sensaion of joy 
this year, for, thank God, having had very successful 
crops from the little land that we tilled, we made from the 
harvest some hosts, and offered them to God. These 
are, as we believe, the first hosts which have been made 
from the wheat of this land." Lettre au R. P. Provin- 
cial a Paris 31 Janvier 1612. 



CHAPTER XII 
Various Historical Authorities Compared 

It is related that the prayer of the founder of the 
Society of Jesus was that the order and its members 
might always be persecuted by the World. Whether 
this tradition be true or not, it is indisputable that the 
Order and most of its eminent members have been 
continuously and systematically persecuted, vilified 
and defamed. It is only within quite recent 
times that writers of American history have begun to 
give to the Jesuits credit for their achievements as the 
pioneers of civilization and Christianity in this country. 
One can go farther and say that it is only within the last 
fifty years that writers have ceased to misrepresent 
and falsify the truths of history for the base purpose 
of defaming and traducing the Jesuit Order and the 
work of its members. In the records of the Maine 
Historical Society, no longer ago than 1857, we find 
in Volume V of the Collections of the Maine Historical 
Society, page 175, the following argument to excuse the 
fact that the record of Episcopalian Maine as compared 
A\dth Puritan Massachusetts is a blank, 

"The French, not less mercenary, but more crafty, 
early won the savage heart, and turned it against the 
Englisii, infused with the animosity of religion. The 
Jesuit did not carry civilization to the Indian, for he 
adopted the life of the savage; not the gospel, for he 
supplanted the pow-wow; the new superstitions were 
scarcely better than the old diabolisms; it was almost 



90 The Makers of Maine 

an apostasy; he did not "preach the gospel," but de- 
based it to a few manipulations. Father Du Moine 
revisiting the Iroquois in the summer of 1653, says 
that he "baptized little skeletons, who awaited, per- 
haps only this drop of the precious blood of Jesus 
Christ;" and the natives, with superstitious awe, 
thought that he, like their own wizards, "had to do with 
the devil." Such was the Christian faith the poor 
savage gained from this zealous priesthood. The 
Indian was better than his teacher. By the superiority 
of civilization the Jesuit became the head of the tribe. 
Of implicit faith, disciplined to self-negation in the 
school of Loyola, the progeny of the Inquisition, and 
envenomed with its deadly hatred, unscrupulous mas- 
ters of intrigue, these men of France, instigated the 
savage to hostilities to the English heretics, whom 
they represented as the enemies of the true God. They 
waked the deadly warhoop, incited the stealthy Indian 
to fire the planter's solitary cabin with the midnight 
torch and scatter the brains of the helpless inmates 
with the tomahawk, and at their feet were laid the 
bloody trophies of the scalping knife. The promised 
boon of these ghastly deeds was Heaven." (Collection 
of the Maine Historical Society, Volume V. Subject, 
Ancient Pemaquid.) It seems now to us impossible 
of belief that a few short years ago such awful, ghastly 
falsehoods could be written as history. Yet, to this 
day, such history is being taught to children. 

We know that the best authority for the writer of 
history who treats of the French voyages, explorations, 
and settlements in Acadia is to be found in the "Rela- 
tions of the Jesuits," and the history written by Cham- 
plain, and Lescarbot's history; yet such is the perver- 
sity of human nature, when one's prejudices and prior 
convictions are concerned, that we find some historians 



Various Historical Authorities 9i 

deliberately misstating the facts in total disregard of 
the writings of the Jesuits, and the writings of Cham- 
plain and Lescarbot; and others again taking Lescar- 
bot only as authority for certain of their statements, 
in preference to the Jesuits and Champlain, whenever 
Lescarbot treats events from a different viewpoint to 
that of the others, and especially, since it is the fact, as we 
well knew, that Lescarbot was bitterly prejudiced 
against the Jesuits, and, as we have good reason to be- 
lieve, was a Catholic for political reasons only, and at 
heart really a Calvinist. 

Lescarbot, in his "Relation Derniere" gives his version 
of the Jesuits' engagement to come to New France, in 
in these words: "When he (Biencourt) was presented 
to the Queen, she was wonderfully pleased to hear about 
the conversions of several savages, who had been 
baptized before the departure of Sieur de Sainct Just, 
an account of which I published and presented to her 
Majesty. There upon the Jesuits offered themselves to 
aid in the work. The Queen favored the plan and re- 
commended them. I should have been glad, if before 
their departure someone had suggested to her 
Majesty a thing which she would willingly have done, 
namely, to send some presents of food and clothes to 
these neophytes and new Christians, who bear the 
names of the dead King, of the Queen Regent, and of 
my Lords and Ladies, the children of France. But 
everyone looks out for his own interests. Sieur de 
Sainct Just, after his report had been made, meant to 
obtain protection for the beaver trade, believing that 
considerations of a religious nature would easily secure 
this for him. However, he could not obtain it. And 
seeing that the affair was dragging on, and that he 
must go and relieve his father, having been ordered to 
so arrange affairs as to be back in four months, he took 



92 THE Makers of Maine 

leave of the Queen, who sent with him two Jesuits for 
the conversion of the savage tribes over there. But 
as Sieur de Poutrincourt had taken an able man at 
his departure, it seems to me that these men (who can 
be more useful at home) were in too much of a hurry 
for the best interests of the Sieur; because the delay, 
which took place on their account, was very detrimental 
to him and caused a dissolution of his partnership. In 
such undertakings the State must be founded first, 
without which the Church cannot exist, as I have said 
before." 

In another part of his writings he speaks of Father 
Fleche's baptising one hundred and forty-one Indians 
in less than a year as a "chef d'oeuvre." In the above 
quotation he says that the Queen should have been 
asked to send food and clothing to these "neophytes 
and new Christians," Doubtless if he had been writing 
in English and was familiar with modern slang, he 
would have called them "near-Christians." His dis- 
like of the Jesuits and his animosity did not soften with 
the passing of time; but after he left Port Royal and 
returned to France, there was written and published in 
Paris a controversial pamphlet under the title of "Fac- 
tum du Proces entre Jean de Biencourt et les Peres 
Biard et Masse, Jesuites." This publication was 
anonymous, but its authorship was generally ascribed 
to Lescarbot, and it seems that the Jesuits, and par- 
ticularly Father Biard, were satisfied that Lescarbot was 
the writer. 

From the foregoing, we get the ideas and opinions 
of Lescarbot on the subject of the coming of the Jesuits. 
A little farther on I will quote from Champlain's clear 
and interesting account; .so that the reader may finally 
see for himself what are the true facts as proven from 
the great original historical authorities. He may 



Various historical Authorities Compared 93 

then know what authority, or rather, lack of authority, 
there is for the treatment accorded by the great majority 
of EngUsh writing historians to the subject of the 
Jesuits in America. 

Even Bancroft, fair as he wished to be, disregards 
the authority of the "Relations of the Jesuits." As 
an example of the historians of lesser note, what we might 
call the minor historians, let us consider the "History 
of Acadia," written by James Hannay in 1879. This 
book on the whole is very interesting reading, and it 
is a useful contribution to the historical works of the 
Province of Nova Scotia. In so far as the histories 
of Nova Scotia treat of the early days of Acadia, they 
are interesting to us who are dealing with that period 
as a part of the early history of Maine. 

Hannay writes of the trouble between Poutrin- 
court and his son, Biencourt, on the one hand, and the 
Jesuit Fathers, Biard and Masse, on the other, including 
the part taken by Madame de Guercheville in the 
active events of this time. He says: "As the year 
closed (at Port Royal) their prospects looked gloomy 
enough; but relief speedily came, for on the 23rd of 
January, 1612, a vessel arrived with supplies. This 
vessel had been sent in pursuance of an agreement 
which Poutrincourt and Robin had made with Madame 
de Guercheville, who had already exerted herself so 
strenuously to promote the mission of the Jesuits. 
She advanced a thousand crowns for supplies, but 
Poutrincourt soon discovered that he had called in an 
ally who would fain become his master. This ambi- 
tious women had indeed formed the design of establishing 
in Acadia a sort of spiritual despotism, of which the 
members of the Order of Jesus should be the rulers 
and she the patroness. To carry out this plan, it might 
be necessary to disposses Poutrincourt, or, at all events, 



04 The Makers of Maine 

to obtain possession of the rest of Acadia. She had 
abundance of influence at court, and the Queen and 
her adviser, Concini, held views similar to her own. 
She quickly proceeded to put her plans into operation. 
Finding that the whole of Acadia, except Port Royal, 
belonged to De Monts, she obtained from him a release 
of his rights, and immediately obtained a grant of it 
from the King himself. She did not doubt that Pou- 
trincourt's necessities, and the burden of the chargt 
which the Jesuit mission inflicted on the trade of the 
colony, would speedily compel him to abandon Port 
Royal to her also. He did not purpose at that time 
to return to Port Royal, but put the vessel, which he 
sent with supplies, in charge of one Simon Imbert, 
who had been a long time his servant, and in whom 
he had entire confidence. Madame de Guercheville, 
with equal forethought sent out another Jesuit, named 
Gilbert du Thet, who went in the vessel, ostensibly 
as a passenger, but in reality as a spy upon Imbert, 
and to look after her interests." (Page 95, Hannay's 
History of Acadia.) 

There we see the effect of constitutional prejudices 
which blind the historian to the truth, and drive him 
to draw inferences which the facts do not warrant, 
and then to state his inferences as sober facts of history 
which become, to the unsuspecting reader, in very 
truth facts of history. Where could this historian 
find authority for his statement of fact that Madame 
de Guercheville had formed the design of establishing 
in Acadia a "spiritual despotism?" 

We know what Father Biard says about this matter 
in his Relations, but now let us see what the only other 
writer, who has any claim to be regarded as original 
authority, has to say. Samuel de Champlain says: 
"The Reverend Father Christofle Balthazar, Provincial, 



Various Historical Authorities Compared 96 

commissioned the Fathers Pierre Biard and Ennemond 
Mass6 to go with Sieur de Biencourt. The King, 
Louis the Just, caused to be delivered to them five 
hundred crowns promised by the King, his father, 
and several rich ornaments given by Madame de Guer- 
cheville and Madame de Sourdis. When they arrived 
at Dieppe there was some discussion among the Jesuit 
Fathers and the merchants, which caused the Fathers 
to retire to their college of Eu. {We know what it was, — 
that the Huguenot merchants utterly refused to allow the 
Jesuit Fathers to sail in the vessel. ) 

"When Madame de Guercheville knew this, she was 
very indignant that the tradesmen had been so pre- 
sumptuous as to have offended and thwarted these 
fathers, and said that they ought to be punished; but 
their only chastisement lay in their not being admitted 
to the expedition. And knowing that the equipment 
would not go above four thousand livres, she took up 
a collection in the court, and by this kind action she got 
this sum, with which she paid the merchants who had 
troubled these Fathers and cut them off from all associa- 
tion with them; and with the rest of this sum and other 
large property, she established a fund for the mainten- 
ance of these Fathers, not wishing them to be a charge 
to Sieur de Poutrincourt. She also arranged that 
the profits that came from furs and fish, which the ship 
should bring back, should not revert to the benefit of the 
associates and other merchants, but should go back 
to Canada, in the possession of Sieur Robin and Sieur 
de Biencourt, who should use it for the support of Port 
Royal and the French who were living there. 

"In reference to this it was decided and ordained 
that since this money of Madame de Guercheville, 
had been designed for the benefit of Canada, the Jesuits 
should take part in the profits of the association of 



96 The Makers of Maine 

Sieur Robin and Sieur de Biencourt, and share with 
them. 

"It was this contract of partnership that spread 
about so many rumors, complaints and outcries against 
the Jesuit Fathers, who in that and everything else 
are justly governed according to God and to reason to the 
shame and confusion of those who envy and malign them. 

"On January 26, 1611, the same Fathers embarked 
with this Sieur de Biencourt whom they helped with 
money to get the ship off, and to alleviate the great 
want that they experienced in this voyage; since in 
coasting along the shores they stopped and sojourned 
in several places before arriving at Port Royal, which 
was on June 12th, 1611, Whitsunday, (as we have 
seen before, Marc Lescarbot fixes the date more nearly 
correct as May 22nd.) And during this voyage these 
Fathers had a great scarcity of provisions and of other 
things, according to the accounts of the pilot, David 
de Bruges, and the captain, Jean Daume, both of them 
of the so-called reformed religion, who confessed that 
they found these good Fathers quite different from what 
they had been described. 

"As Sieur de Poutrincourt was seeking in France 
every means of aiding his son, Madame de Guercheville, 
who was pious, virtuous, and very much devoted to 
the conversion of the savages, having already collected 
some funds, communicated with him in regard to the 
matter, and said that she would very gladly join the 
company, and that she would send some Jesuit Fathers 
with him for the aid of Canada. The contract of 
partnership was approved, this lady being empowered by 
her husband. Monsieur de Biencourt, first equery of 
the King and Governor of Paris. 

"By that contract it was fixed that she should 
at this time give a thousand crowns for the cargo of the 



VARIOUS HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES COMPARED 97 

ship, provided that she should share the profit that 
this voyage should yield, and of the lands that the 
King had given Sieur de Poutrincourt, as set down in 
the original of the contract. This Sieur de Poutrincourt 
reserved for himself Port Royal, and its lands; not in- 
tending that they should be included in the common 
stock of the other lordships, capes, harbors, and pro- 
vinces that he said he had in this country near Port 
Royal. This lady requested him to produce titles 
to show that these lordships and lands belonged to 
him and how he possessed so large a domain. But he 
excused himself by saying that his titles and papers 
were in New France. When this lady heard this, 
as she was suspicious of Sieur de Poutrincourt and 
wished to guard herself against being taken by surprise, 
she made a contract with Sieur de Monts that he should 
cede back to her all the rights, deeds and claims that 
he had or ever had had in New France derived from the 
gift made him by the late Henry the Great. Madame 
de Guercheville obtained letters from his Majesty, 
now reigning, in which the gift was made anew to 
her of all the lands in New France from the Great 
River as far as Florida, excepting only Port Royal, 
which was what Sieur de Poutrincourt possessed then, 
and nothing else. 

"This lady gave money to the Jesuit Fathers to 
put into the hands of some merchants at Dieppe, but 
this Sieur de Poutrincourt inveigled these same fathers 
into giving him four hundred of this thousand crowns. 
He sent in charge of this expedition an employee of his 
called Simon Imbert Sandrier, who acquitted himself 
rather badly in the management of this equipped and 
freighted ship. He left Dieppe December 31st in the 
height of winter and reached Port Royal, January 23rd, 
the next year, 1612." 



98 The Makers of Maine 

Those are the words of Samuel de Champlain, 
a truthful writer, whose veracity in matters historical 
has never been questioned by any well informed histor- 
ian. If the writers of modern times, more particularly, 
those who have written in the English language, are 
right in their statements, criticisms, and innuendos 
derogatory to the Jesuits and to Madame de Guerche- 
ville, then not only the Relations of the Jesuits, that 
great body of writings acknowledged to be the very 
source and fountain head of historical data, are un- 
trustworthy, but even Samuel de Champlain is not to 
be trusted. But such a conclusion is unbelievable. 

Therefore, we may be certain that Madame de 
Guercheville, who occupies the unique position in his- 
tory of being the only woman possessed of sovereignty 
over the lands of the New World, the woman who was 
the feudal suzerain of a great fief, was, as Champlain 
says, a pious and virtuous woman, much devoted to 
the conversion of the Indians; and that, instead of 
going into the venture for gain, she was actuated by 
the highest of motives, and at a great personal sacrifice. 
She not only strained her own resources, but had to 
use her influence with her court friends to obtain aid. 
It is also quite plain that de Poutrincourt had planned 
to cheat the lady by "doing" her out of her money and 
deceiving her as to the lands which he possessed and of 
which he would make her a partner and part owner. 
It was only by her own shrewdness, or by the shrewd 
advice of some one who knew Poutrincourt better than 
she did, that she protected her interests by getting 
a release from de Monts of his patent, and having the 
release confirmed to her by the King. Moreover, 
instead of the Jesuit Brother Du Thet being sent along on 
the ship as a spy, as our English writers would have us 
believe, du Thet was as much an infant in business as 



Various Historical Authorities Compared 99 

the Fathers Biard and Mass6, who allowed de Pout- 
rincourt to "do" them out of four hundred crowns of 
Madame de Guercheville's money. According to 
Champlain, the boot should be put on the other leg, 
for it was the worthy Simon, de Poutrincourt's "em- 
ployee," who went along, in the capacity of "super- 
cargo" as it was called in later times, armed with secret 
instiuctions from de Poutrincourt to take every means 
of getting the better of the Jesuits and putting them in 
as bad and false a light as possible. 

Whatever may be said against Gilbert du Thet 
by writers who are prejudiced against the Jesuits, not 
one of them has ever been able to suppress the magi- 
ficent fact that he was the hero of the short but bloody 
fight thrust upon the French by the pirate Argall at 
St. Sauveur, that he fought like a soldier-priest of the 
Crusading times, and died the first Jesuit martyr in the 
New World. 

To sum the case up, we have the testimony of 
Champlain, that the two gentlemen who were highest 
in command on board the ship, the pilot, David de 
Bruges, and the Captain, Jean Daume, both Huguenots, 
or of the reformed religion, confessed that they found 
the good fathers quite different from what they had 
been told to expect. 

I have made considerable of this circumstance; 
indeed, it may seem to the reader that the game is not 
worth the chase. But I must remind you, my dear 
friend reader, you who have felt enough interest to 
follow along to this point, that this period, which we 
are considering, is one of the most important, most 
vital to the history of our early days, of all. For here 
we come to the threshold of a great and momentous 
epoch. The coming of the Jesuit missionaries marks 
the beginning of a new period of history. All writers 



100 The Makers of Maine 

of history agree upon that, — all from Bancroft and 
Parkman down to the composer of the smallest school 
history. All agree that the work done by the Jesuits 
throughout this region, which is now our State of Maine, 
throughout the great Dominion of Canada, and 
throughout the broad valley of the Mississippi, broad 
as a continent itself, was wonderful, romantic, 
and of lasting effect. And, therefore, it follows that 
if the first steps of this great Society of Jesus, the first 
steps boarding the vessel, sailing across the ocean, 
and landing upon the American soil, are marked with 
dishonesty, deceit, and chicanery, as so many writers 
wish us to believe, then a cloud of suspicion rests 
upon the Society and its members always afterwards. 
So, I have quoted freely from those contemporaneous 
writers of history who lived at the time, and who should 
know, and did know best, to prove that the Jesuits, 
from the very beginning, from their first step aboard 
a ship, have been maligned and vilified. Such facts, 
taken in connection with so many others of like kind, 
lead one to believe that there may be some truth in the 
old tradition which I mentioned in the beginning of 
the tale of the Jesuits. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Troubles and Disputes at Port Royal 

Father Biard's acts while at Port Royal, and after- 
wards while a prisoner in the hands of Captain Argall 
aboard ship and in Virginia, and his character for honor 
and priestly sanctity have been the subject of much argu- 
ment and dispute among historians. Francis Parkman, 
author of the "Jesuits in North America," accepts and 
eagerly swallows all the evidences against the Jesuit 
as quite conclusive that he was dishonorable, deceitful 
and crafty, and embodied in himself all the fabulous 
worst features of the crafty, unscrupulous Society of 
Jesus. Everybody who reads the relations of this Jes- 
uit forms his own opionion of his character, and the 
prior convictions and prejudices of the student natural- 
ly enough affect seriously the opinion that he forms. 

After reading the Relations of Father Biard I have, 
for myself, formed the opinion that Father Biard was an 
honest man, a man of honor, a priest imbued with a lofty 
realization of the great burden of responsibility which 
rested upon him by reason of his calling; but, like all 
of us, his fellow men, he was human, and he had his 
weaknesses and faults. I believe that his particular 
weakness was a ph^sical^ cowardice ; that he was physi- 
cally a coward and had a mortal fear of death by violence, 
and that this fear throws light upon some of his acts 
when captured by the English and carried a prisoner to 
Virginia and England; and explains what might 
otherwise be thought to have been double-dealing and 
treachery toward Biencourt. 



102 The Makers of Maine 

There was never any good feeling and friendliness 
between Biencourt, head of the Port Royal colony, 
representing the secular authority, the State, in the 
lands of New France, and Father Biard, representing the 
Church, in the same domain. They had nothing in 
common. Biencourt was not even a Catholic — if 
he was anything he was a Huguenot, or French Calvin- 
ist. But of all things, he hated the Jesuits and feared 
the growth of their influence. And Father Biard, on his 
part, understood the motives that actuated Biencourt 
and his father, Poutrincourt, in founding and keeping 
alive the Port Royal colony. And moreover, clearer- 
visioned and more far seeing than Biencourt, he per- 
ceived the seeds of failure, the cause of decay in the 
mercenary and unpatriotic motives by which Biencourt 
and his companions were actuated. Not De Monts, 
the founder and first leader of Port Royal. De Monts 
was a high-minded, patriotic gentleman, and thought 
to advance the glory of France in the New World. But 
Poutrincourt, who held Port Royal under De Monts, 
was actuated by no such motives. De Monts sank a 
fortune in his efforts to plant the flag and authority of 
France securely in this part of the world. Poutrin- 
court, and his active, able, ambitious son, Biencourt, 
reckoned to found a fortune in these lands. 

Father Biard sums it up clearly in his Relation of the 
year 1616, in the Chapter "Quel Moyen ily pent Auoir 
d'aider Ces Nations a leur Salut Eternel." These are 
his words: "Now , after considering the whole subject 
thoroughly, the result of all these opinions, sentiments, 
experiments, arguments and conjectures of the wise 
can hardly be otherwise than this: namely, that 
there is no probability of ever being able to convert or 
really help these Nations (the Indians) to salvation, 
if there is not established there a Christian and Catholic 



Troubles and Disputes at Port Royal io3 

colony, having a sufficiency of means to maintain it, 
and upon which all the countries depend, even as to 
provisions and temporal needs. Such is the result and 
conclusion of our investigations. Now how can these 
colonists and emigrants be sheltered, provided for, 
and kept together there? This is not the place to go 
into details about it or even to enumerate the chief 
points. I shall only suggest that it is great folly for 
small companies to go there, who picture to themselves 
Baronies, and I know not what great fiefs and demesnes 
for three or four thousand ecus, for example, which they 
will have to sink in that country. It would be still 
worse if this foolish idea would occur to people who flee 
from the ruin of their families in France; for to such 
covetous people it invariably happens, not that, being 
one eyed, they would be kings among the blind, but that 
blind, they would go to throw themselves into a wretched 
pit; and possibly instead of a Christian stronghold, 
they would found a den of thieves, a nest of brigands, 
a receptacle of parasites, a refuge for rogues, a hot- 
bed of scandal and all wickedness." 

Father Biard hit upon one of the reasons why the 
English colonies here survived and finally won out 
over the French; a subject which I shall develop later 
when I come to sum up what I have called the philos- 
ophy of the history of Maine. 

As an example of the petty annoyances to which 
the Jesuit Fathers were subjected by Poutrincourt, the 
head of the civil authority, let me mention the following. 
I have already spoken of the great difficulty which the 
Fathers had in their work of conversion, by reason of 
their ignorance, at this early day, of the native language, 
and the impossibility of finding and securing the services 
of any native interpreter who had enough intelligence 
to give workable equivalents for words and phrases 



104 THE Makers of Maine 

expressing ideas such as faith, charity, sorrow, etc. An 
expedient presented itself by which it appeared they 
might be able to extricate themselves from these per- 
plexities and obstacles. There was a young man by 
the name of Du Pont who had come over from France 
with the company of settlers, and had got himself 
into bad favor with Biencourt, had been obliged to 
leave the settlement and live with the Indians. This 
young man had learned to speak the language fluently. 
Father Biard thought that with his assistance he could 
prepare a little catechism of Christian instruction. The 
priest decided to go in search of Du Pont in the woods, 
and cross the "French Bay," now the Bay of Fundy, 
in a canoe, rather than not to avail himself of this chance 
of doing good to the Indians. But the Sieur de Bien- 
court (so the Father writes) was very much opposed 
to this decision, taking great offense at the mere propo- 
sal of it, and absolutely refused to allow it. Father 
Biard was obliged to yield to him, to have peace. 

In the next chapter I shall narrate one more event 
of importance which happened to the Jesuits before 
their labors among the Indians ceased for the time, 
an interesting occurence because it is in the nature of 
a miracle, and was so regarded by Father Biard ; at least 
if it was not actually a miracle, it partook of the mirac- 
ulous. As I am not a theologian, I do not pretend to 
understand the theological distinctions between miracles 
actually so, and events of a supernatural character 
which are not deemed absolute miracles; therefore 
I will relate the occurrence without comment in the 
next chapter; before closing the history of this first 
Jesuit mission upon the soil of what is now the 
State of Maine. 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Death of Sagamore Membertou 

In the last chapter I promised to relate an event of 
a miraculous nature which happened during the sojourn 
of the Jesuits, Father Biard and Father Mass6, at Port 
Royal. Perhaps, to call it a miracle is an unfortunate use 
of words, for, I presume that theologians would quickly 
distinguish the occurence from what is properly known 
as a miracle. Rather, let us say that the event furnishes 
an evidence of the supernatural effect, sometimes 
made evident to the senses of men, of the administering 
of a sacrament. 

In the year 1611, the great Sagamore Membertou, 
for many years chief of a large and powerful tribe, 
died at an advanced age, after having been converted 
and received into the Church. His was probably the 
only sincere conversion worked by the secular priest, 
Jesse Fleche who preceded the Jesuits. Father Biard 
found this Indian already a Christian when he arrived at 
Port Royal. Perhaps, by reason of his eminent and ex- 
ceptional intelligence, he was the more easily brought 
to see the superior reasonableness of the Christian 
doctrine to the senseless and childish myths which 
the savages believed and which later Protestant writers 
have ignorantly sought to dignify by the name of the 
"Indian Religion," which was no religion at all. Perhaps 
it was the act of God, to make this Sagamore serve as 
a striking example to his savage followers. 

These are the words of Father Biard, describing the 



106 The Makers of Maine 

last days of Membertou: "This good savage, having 
confessed and received Extreme Unction, told Sieur de 
Biencourt that he wished to be buried with his fathers 
and ancestors. Father Biard was very much opposed 
to this proposition, admonishing him that it was not 
lawful for him, a Christian, to wish to be buried with 
heathens, who were condemned; especially as in doing 
so he would cause great scandal, inasmuch as, when the 
savages heard and saw that he had not wanted to be 
buried with us, they would readily entertain the suspi- 
cion that he had been a Christian only in appearance. 
In any case that all this would always seem like 
contempt for Christian burial, etc. Sieur de Biencourt 
replied for Membertou that they would have the burial 
place blessed and that such a promise had been made to 
Membertou. Father Biard answered that that would not 
do; for, in order to bless the said place, they would have 
to disinter the pagans who were buried there, which 
would cause them to be abominated by all the savages, 
and would savor too much of impiety. These reasons 
did not avail, because the sick man, believing that 
Sieur de Biencourt was on his side, persisted in his 
determination. In order to make them understand 
that this affair was of greater importance than they 
thought. Father Biard informed them that the inter- 
ment would take place without him, and he wanted 
them to understand it from that time on, protesting 
that he would have nothing to do with any such coun- 
sels and decisions, and thereupon he departed. How- 
ever, so the sick man would not think that what was 
mere duty and charity was anger, he returned in 
less than an hour afterwards, and began again to wait 
upon him as before. God looked kindly upon his good 
intentions, for the next morning the savage, of his own 
free will, changed his mind, and said that he wanted to 



The Death of Sagamore Membertou 107 

be buried in the common burying ground of the Christ- 
ians, to prove his faith to all, and to be able to partici- 
pate in the prayers which he had there seen offered. 
He died a very good Christian, and his death greatly 
saddened the Jesuits, for they loved him, and 
were loved by him in return. He had often said to 
them: 'Learn our language quickly, for when you 
have learned it, you will teach me, and when I am taught 
I will become a preacher like you, and we will convert 
the whole country.' The savages have no recollection 
of ever having had a greater or more powerful Sagamore. 
Speaking of the matter of learning the Indian 
language, and I have already mentioned this matter 
before, I desire to quote the words of Father Biard 
on this point, as they graphically describe the immense 
difficulties under which a missionary, to any savage 
and barbarous people, labors. "It would be 
hard to understand the great difficulties 

which they here encountered; the principal one being, 
that they had neither teacher nor interpreter. To 
be sure Sieur de Bien court, and some of the others, knew 
a little of it very well, enough for trade and ordinary 
affairs, but when there was a question of speaking 
about God and religious matters, there was the diffi- 
culty, there, the 'not understand.' Therefore, they 
were obliged to learn the language by themselves, inquir- 
ing of the savages how they called each thing. And 
the task was not so very wearisome as long as what 
was asked could be touched or seen; a stone, a river, 
a house, to strike, to jump, to laugh, to sit down. But 
when it came to internal and spiritual acts, which cannot 
be demonstrated to the senses, and in regard to words 
which are called abstract and universal, such as, to 
believe, to doubt, to hope, to discourse, to apprehend, 
an animal, a body, a substance, a spirit, virtue, ' vice, 



108 The Makers of Maine 

sin, reason, justice, etc.; for these things they had to 
labor and sweat, in these were the pains of travail. 
They did not know by what route to reach them, al- 
though they tried more than a hundred; there were no 
gestures which would sufficiently express their ideas, 
not if they would use ten thousand of them. Mean- 
while our gentlemen savages, to pass away the time, 
made sport of their pupils, always telling them a lot 
of nonsense. And yet if you wanted to take advantage 
of this fun, if you had your paper and pencil ready to 
write, you had to set before them a full plate with a 
napkin underneath. For to such tripods do good 
oracles yield; without this incentive, both Apollo and 
Mercury would fail them; as it was they even became 
angry and went away, if we wished to detain them a 
little. What would you have done under the circum- 
stances? For in truth, this work cannot be understood 
except by those who have tried it. Besides, as these 
savages have no formulated religion, government, 
towns, nor any trades, so the words and proper phrases 
for all those things are lacking; Holy, Blessed, Angel, 
Grace, Mystery, Sacrament, Temptation, Faith, Law, 
Prudence, Subjection, Authority, etc. Where will you 
get all these things that they lack? Or, how will you 
do without them? O God, with what ease we make 
our plans in France. And the beauty of it is, that 
after having racked our brains by dint of questions 
and researches, and after thinking that we have at 
last found the philosopher's stone, we find that only 
a ghost has been taken for a body, a shadow for a sub- 
stance, and that all this precious Elixir has gone up in 
smoke. They often ridiculed instead of teaching 
us, and sometimes palmed off on us indecent words, 
which we went about innocently preaching for beau- 



The Death of Sagamore Membertou 109 

tiful sentences from the Gospels. God knows who 
were the instigators of such sacrileges." 

The foregoing plain and truthful picture of the 
"noble Indian" character may furnish food for thought 
to a few of the numberless American people who have 
conceived the idea that the primitive Indian was a 
simple, clean-minded, upright living, honest child of 
the forest, until he degenerated under the baleful in- 
fluence of the white men, especially the Frenchmen. 
The writings of Champlain and of the later Jesuit 
missionaries who worked in Canada and around the 
region of the Great Lakes in the West, and down the 
valley of the Mississippi, are full of much plainer des- 
criptions of the unpleasant and disagreeable character 
of the natives. 



CHAPTER XV 

The First Mass Said In Maine 

The first Mass that ever was said in the country 
of what is now the Province of New Brunswick, and the 
first administering of the sacraments of Penance and 
Holy Eucharist, took place in the Fall of the year 1611. 
Biencourt and a ship's company, together with 
Father Biard went on an expedition to the west 
to trade with the Indians living on the Kennebec river 
for corn and what other food they could get to help 
through the famine which they knew would come upon 
them during the next winter at Port Royal. On the 
way, Biencourt determined to hunt up the Maloans, 
(people from Malo in France) who were poaching, 
as we would say now, upon the lands and waters owned 
by Biencourt's father, Poutrincourt. These people 
gave the men who had rightful grants from the Crown 
great trouble, as they hunted and fished, and what 
was a worse offense, traded with the Indians, over the 
lands reserved by lawful grant, illegally and wrongfully, 
without permission and without making compensation. 
Biencourt sailed up the St. John River several leagues 
and came upon their encampment. Their commander. 
Captain Merveille, was away at the time, but came 
into camp during the night, and was immediately 
taken prisoner by Biencourt. The next morning 
a peace was patched up between Biencourt 
and the Maloans and the latter agreed to recog- 
nise the superior title and authority of Biencourt 



The First Mass Said In Maine hi 

and to make compensation for their illegal trading. 
Father Biard then said Mass and Captain Merveille 
made his confession to the Father and received com- 
munion together with three of his men. 

However, to us who are studying the early history 
of Maine, it is of greater interest to know that the first 
Mass said on the soil of the State of Maine was said 
in the month of October, 1611, on an island in the 
Kennebec River, three leagues from its mouth. It 
is a pity that Father Biard leaves us no description 
of that island by which we can identify it today from 
among the great number of islands in the lower Kenne- 
bec. It lies between Bath and the sea, about three 
leagues from the mouth of the river, and imagination 
must supply the rest. The Jesuit relates it in these 
words : 

"We arrived at the Kinibequi towards the end 
of October. Kinnibequi is a river near the Armou- 
chiquois, in latitude forty-three and two third degrees, 
and southwest of Port Royal about seventy leagues or 
thereabouts. It has two quite large mouths, one 
distant from the other at least two leagues; it is also 
cut up by numerous arms and branches. Besides, 
it is a great and beautiful river; but we did not see good 
soil there any more than at the St. John River. They 
say however, that farther up, away from the sea, the 
country is very fine and life there agreeable, and that 
the people till the soil. We did not go farther up 
than three leagues; we whirled about through so many 
eddies, and shot over so many precipices, that several 
times it was a great miracle of God that we did not 
perish. Some of our crew cried out at two different 
times that we were lost; but they cried too soon, blessed 
be our Lord. The savages cajoled us with the hope 
of getting corn; then they changed their promise of 



112 The Makers of Maine 

corn to that of trade in beaver skins. Now while this 
trading was going on, Father Biard had gone, with a 
boy, to an island near by, to celebrate Holy Mass. 

The company traded with the Indians and once 
came near to having trouble with them, but the peace 
was not disturbed, and they sailed away leaving behind 
them a good opinion in the minds of the Indians. It 
seems that these Indians had good reason to fear and 
hate the white men because (as I have stated in a 
former chapter) the English in 1608 had abused them 
shamefully. Father Biard, says: "These people do not 
seem to be bad, although they drove away the English 
who wished to settle among them in 1608 and 1609. 
They made excuses to us for this act, and recounted 
the outrages they had experienced from the English; 
and they flattered us, saying that they loved us very 
much, because they knew we would not close our doors 
to the savages as the English did, and set our dogs 
upon them." This is a different description from what 
has come down to us from the English writers as I 
shall show later. 

March 12th, 1613, a ship was fitted out and sailed 
from the port of Honfleur, France, for the Jesuit mission 
in New France. It was the intention to take up the 
two Jesuits at Port Royal, Fathers. Biard and Mass6, and 
remove them to new headquarters to be founded at a 
point on the Penobscot River in Maine, called Kades- 
quit, not far from what is now Bangor. "But," as Father 
Biard says, "dieu en disposa autremente." And indeed 
He ordained so much "otherwise", that the entire his- 
tory of Maine has resulted differently. If the intentions 
of the Jesuits and Madame de Guercheville 
their financial backer, had been carried into effect 
identically as planned, who can say today what would 
have been the history of Maine? Under what flag 



The First Mass Said In Maine 113 

would we be living? What language would we be 
speaking and writing as the official language of the 
State? One hundred and fifty years of conflict between 
France and England for the possession of this land might 
have been avoided. The citadel of Quebec might to-day 
be the French Giberaltar of the west. The farmers of 
Maine, in language, laws, customs, and religion, might 
be indistinguishable from the "habitants" of the Province 
of Quebec. The American Revolution, if it had hap- 
pened at all, might have meant to us no more than the 
distant clash of arms of Virginia planters and New York 
merchants with their English cousins, while we with 
friendly sentiments towards both sides might have 
looked on in pity and regret. 

This is a childish dream that you are telling us and 
not history, the reader is saying to himself by this time. 
Have patience. Permit me to assure you that it is a 
solemn fact of history that the simple fact that a dense 
fog happened to settle down on the coast of Maine for 
several days and nights during the latter part of the 
month of May in the year 1613 preventing a ship com- 
manded by one Captain La Saussaye having on board 
four Jesuits and a crew of some thirty or forty men, 
from finding the mouth of the Penobscot River, changed 
the whole course of the history of Maine irrevocably. 

This ship sailed from France under the command 
of Captain La Saussaye carrying Father Quentin S. 
J., and Brother Gilbert du Thet S. J., and a company 
numbering forty-eight persons. It was well freighted. 
Besides provisions, it carried horses and cattle, tents 
and munitions of war. May 16th, after two months 
at sea, they landed at Cap de la Heve on the coast of 
Acadia. Here Mass was said and a cross was erected 
upon which was placed the coat of arms of Madame la 
Marquise de Guercheville as a sign of having taken 



114 The Makers of Maine 

possession of the coast in her name. As I stated in 
the preceding chapter, Madame de Guercheville was now 
the owner of all New France from the St. Lawrence 
to Florida, with the exception of Port Royal, by royal 
grant from the crown of France. Putting to sea again, 
they came to Port Royal. Here they found only five 
persons, the two Jesuits, and three others. Biencourt 
and the rest of his company were off on an expedition. 
After five days at Port Royal they set sail again for the 
coast of Maine, with Fathers Biard and Masse on board. 

As I have said, they were aiming for a point on the 
Penobscot River, where it was their intention to found 
new headquarters for the mission. But when ofi 
Grand Manan Island they ran into a dense fog in which 
they were lost for two days and two nights.' They offered 
prayers and vows to God, and, as Father Biard says, 
— "in his goodness He hearkened to us, for when even- 
ing came on we began to see the stars, and by morning 
the fog had all disappeared. We recognized that we 
were off Mount Desert, an island which the savages 
call Pemetiq. The pilot turned to the eastern shore 
of the island, and there located us in a large and beauti- 
ful port, here we made our thanksgiving to God, raising 
a cross and singing to God his praises with the sacrifice 
of the holy Mass. We called this place and port Saint 
Sauveur." 

A quarrel arose between the sailors and the 
others as to the point to which the sailors had agreed 
to ship. The pilot maintained that no ship had 
ever sailed up the Penobscot to Kadesquit, and he ab- 
solutely refused to immortalize himself by being the 
discoverer of a new route. While the dispute was in pro- 
gress, the Indians on the shore signaled the ship with 
smoke. When they learned that Father Biard was 
aboard they urged the company to locate at this point, 



The First Mass Said In Maine lis 

praising it very highly. Father Biard was not impressed 
by their praises as he had set his determination upon 
reaching the place on the Penobscot called Kadesquit. 
When they found that they could not prevail upon him 
to stay by their praises of the location, they resorted 
to an argument which was unanswerable by the priest, 
and which shows how quickly and shrewdly they esti- 
mated the missionary zeal of the Jesuits. They pretend- 
ed that their Sagamore was very sick and in danger 
of death. "If thou dost not come (they said) he will 
die without baptism and will not go to heaven; thou 
wilt be the cause of it, for he himself wishes very much 
to be baptized." Fr. Biard at once went with them; 
and to his chagrin found that the great Sagamore was 
ill with a cold. 

However, after considering the situation the voy- 
agers decided that they would do well to locate their 
fort and settlement at this place which they had called 
St. Sauveur, being impressed by the natural beauty of 
the scenery. We children of Maine can appreciate 
with what pleasure they must have viewed the romantic 
shores of Mt. Desert Island. It calls for the pen of a 
poet to do justice in words to the beauty of the scenery 
of this part of the coast of Maine. The writer is not a 
poet. But fortunately most of the readers of these 
articles are familiar with the shores of this State and 
appreciative of the charm of its varying coast line, the 
skies continually changing, with glimpses of blue more 
brilliant than the famed skies of Sicily, views of green 
hills of romantic beauty constrasted with the darker 
green of the foliage, a shore line changing in a few miles 
into the sublime grandeur of great cliffs their grayrock 
seamed with bands of brown and red. The pen of the 
Jesuit is plain and matter of fact, his descriptions are 
characterized by a certain naive simplicity rather than 



116 The Makers of Maine 

enthusiasm, but even his sober style is enlivened by 
the impression which the view of this shore made upon 
him. He says: "This place is a beautiful hill rising 
gently from the sea, its sides bathed by two springs; 
the land is cleared for twenty or twenty-five acres, and 
in some places is covered with grass almost as high as a 
man. It faces the south and east, and is near the 
mouth of the Pentegoet (the Penobscot), where several 
broad and pleasant rivers, which abound in fish, dis- 
charge their waters; its soil is dark, rich and fertile; 
the port and harbor are as fine as can be seen, and are 
in a position favorable to command the entire coast; 
the harbor especially is as safe as a pond. For besides 
being strengthened by the great island of Mount De- 
sert, it is still more protected by certain small islands 
which break the currents and the winds and fortify the 
entrance. It is situated latitude 44 1-3 degrees, a posi- 
tion still less northerly than that of Bordeau." 

I transcribe this statement more especially for the 
benefit of those readers who are particularly familiar 
with the spot now known with fair certainty to have 
been the exact position where St. Sauveur was located 
where the cross was erected and Mass celebrated for 
the first time on the shore near Mt. Desert Island 
(but not the first Mass in Maine as I have shown in 
the preceding chapter), and where the first Jesuit 
was martyred in the State of Maine. 

Father Biard then proceeds to say these significant 
words: "With the beginning of work also began the 
quarrels, a second sign and augury of our ill luck. The 
cause of these dissensions was principally that La Saus- 
saye, our captain, amused himself too much in culti- 
vating the land, while all the chiefs of the enterprise 
were urging him not to employ the laborers for that 
purpose, but to get to work without delay upon the 



The First Mass Said in Maine 117 

houses and fortifications, which he did not wish to do. 
From these disputes sprang others, until the English 
brought us all to an understanding with each other, as 
you will hear immediately." 



CHAPTER XVI 

The Argall Outrage 

The readers of these essays are all familiar with 
the location of Jamestown, Virginia, and how far dis- 
tant it was from St. Sauveur on the coast of Maine. 
Surely then, there was plenty of room for both ambi- 
tious nations to live in peace and security in this vast 
extent of territory. Or as Father Biard says, "Judge if 
they have any good reason for quarreling with us." 

I have now, in the course of this narrative reached the 
point where I must relate the story of a foul, cold-blood- 
ed murder committed by Englishmen in a time of pro- 
found peace between France and England. The story 
is an old one, an oft-told tale, familiar to all readers of 
history. But perhaps I can relate some details taken 
from the narrative of one of the eye-witnesses of the 
affair, which may interest the reader because my infor- 
mation is from the original sources. 

The English from Virginia were accustomed every 
summer to send an expedition to the region of the Gulf 
of Maine and the Banks to get a supply of codfish. 
A ship commanded by Captain Argall was making for 
this place as usual in the summer of 1613 when it hap- 
pened to be caught in this same fog which turned the 
French ship under La Saussaye to its new settlement 
of St. Sauveur instead of to its original objective, a 
point up the Penobscot. This Captain Argall was a 
crafty, unscrupulous, pitiless adventurer, who had al- 
ready gained an unenviable reputation as a commander 



The Argall Outrage 119 

of illicit trading vessels, and who was then fresh from 
his despicable exploit of abducting Pocahontas, the 
young Indian princess, and carrying her a prisoner to 
Jamestown. Fr. Biard, however, in his Relation, 
does not give him credit for one weak excuse for this 
attack upon St. Sauveur, which in all fairness in WTit- 
ing history should be mentioned. He was sailing under 
a commission from Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, with authority to expel any intruders upon the 
domains of King James of England (if anybody could 
then or can now define the limits of that domain. 
With him were an admirable company, from the 
Virginia Colony, of ruined younger sons, disreputable 
gentlemen, and hangers-on of London taverns and 
gambling-houses. 

Unfortunately, some Indians passing near 
his ship supposed that he was a Frenchman looking 
for his compatriots, and they, actuated by friendship 
for the French, informed him of the presence of the 
French at St. Sauveur, and upon being questioned by 
him, in signs, as to the number of French, gave him to 
understand that the company was weak in number. 
With great glee he directed the Indians to pilot him to 
his friends and compatriots, the French. When the 
English discovered the French settlement they began to 
clear their ship for action. When the Indians saw the 
the mistake that they had unwittingly committed, 
they wept and cursed the English and leaped overboard 
and swam ashore. 

Father Biard describes the astonishment of the 
French as this English ship bore down upon them 
showing every sign of hostility, while they them- 
selves were totally unprepared. With these expressive 
words he describes the appearance of the British ships: 
"Le nauire Anglois venoit plus viste qu'vn dard, ayant 



■120 The Makers of Maine 

vent a souhait, tout pauis de rouge, les pauillons d'An- 
gleterre fiottans, trois trompettes & deux tambours 
faisants rage de sonner." The French were taken wholly 
unaware. Their ship was deprived of half its sailors, an 
had only ten men to defend it, and of these none under- 
stood naval warfare. Besides, as it was summer and 
they were not anticipating any attack from a nation 
with whom France was at peace, the ship was entirely 
disarranged, even the sails had been taken down and 
were being used for awnings. Their commander, La 
Saussaye was on shore, and did not go aboard upon the 
approach of the English, and although the Jesuit writer 
does not say so in words, the inference must be clearly 
drawn from his narration that La Saussaye ran away. 
The English fired one terrible volley. 

Let me quote Father Biard for the rest: "Captain 
Flory cried, 'Fire the cannon, fire,' but the cannoneer was 
not there. Now Brother Gilbert du Thet, who in all his 
life had never felt fear or shown himself a coward, hearing 
this command and seeing no one to obey it, took a match 
and made us speak as loudly as the enemy. Unfortu- 
nately, he did not take aim; if he had, perhaps there 
might have been something worse than mere noise. 
The English, after this first and furious volley, came 
alongside of us, and held an anchor ready to grapple 
our bits. Captain Flory very opportunely paid out 
more cable, which stopped the enemy and made them 
turn away, for they were afraid if they pursued us we 
would draw them into shallow water; then seeing our 
vessel fall back, and thus being reassured, they again 
began to approach us, firing off the muskets as before. 
It was during this second charge that Brother Gilbert 
du Thet received a musket shot in his body and fell 
stretched out across the deck. Captain Flory was also 
wounded in the foot, and three others in other places, 




fe. 



The Argall Outrage 121 

which made them signal and cry out that we surrend- 
ered, for it was evidently a very unequal match." 

In this way it was that the first Jesuit to lose his 
life in Maine came to his death fighting like a brave 
man. 

In a few words, quoted from Father Biard in his clear 
and simple style, free from exaggeration and rhetorical 
flourish, I have related the history of Argall's outrage. 
Thus did bloody Argall, in his lawlessness, strike the 
first blow, which brought on the long series of battles 
and wars between France and England in the new world, 
which lasted for one hundred and fifty years, deluged 
Maine and Canada with blood, cost the lives of thous- 
ands of English and French and countless numbers of 
Indians, occasioned numerous acts of treachery and 
cruelty, martyred many missionary priests, retarded the 
peaceful advance of civilization and Christianity, and 
gave rise to bitterness, disputes and lies, the influence 
and effect of which have been felt in history from that 
day to this. 

Captian Argall, knowing well that his act was un- 
warranted by the conditions existing in Acadia and 
Maine and unjustifiable in international law; that his 
attack upon the French ship was nothing less than 
piracy; and that the destruction of the fortifications 
and burning of the camps on shore would furnish France 
with a "casus belli" against England; devised a shrewd 
and cunning scheme to make his act appear excusable if 
not entirely justifiable and to shift to La Saussaye the 
burden of proving his case. As I have stated, Father 
Biard insinuates, although not charging in so many 
words, that the French commander of the expedition 
preferred his own personal safety to the hazards of the 
unequal battle, and hid himself in the woods while the 
fight was on. After that short and bloody encounter 



122 The Makers of Maine 

was over La Saussaye could not be found. Therefore 
Argall took advantage of his absence to pick the locks 
of his trunks ; he abstracted the commissions and royal 
patents, afterwards putting everything back in its 
place, fastening the trunks again. The next day La 
Saussaye returned, and Argall received him with court- 
esy, and asked him to show his commission from the 
French king. La Saussaye answered that his authority 
would be found all correct and regular in his trunks 
He proceeded to open them, when, of course, they were 
not to be found. At this, Argall pretended to fly into 
a terrible rage. "How now," he said, "are you imposing 
on us? You give us to understand that you have a 
commission from your king, and you cannot produce 
any evidence of it. You are outlaws and pirates, every 
one of you, and you merit death." 

Then the English plundered the Frenchmen, not 
only their good?, but even the very clothes they wore. 
The poor Frenchmen were reduced to a pitiable state. 
It was then that the Indians showed their good will 
and friendship towards them, as well as their means per- 
mitted. Father. Biard says: "Now it is impossible to 
imagine the anxiety we endured at that time, for we 
knew not which way to turn. From the English, we 
expected only death or at least slavery; but to remain 
in this country, and for so many men to live among the 
savages in their way for a whole year, looked to us like 
a long and miserable death. These good savages, 
having heard about our misfortune, came and offered 
to do their best for us, promising to feed us during the 
winter, and showing a great deal of sympathy for us. 
But we could hope for nothing better than they had; 
also we could see no prospect of finding any other ex- 
peditions in such a desert." 

Those are the words of Father Biard. Those 



The Argall Outrage 123 

words are the original authority for all the history that 
may be written upon the battle of St. Sauveur. I 
do not know of any other original source. I have never 
heard that Argall ever wrote a history, or any record of 
the battle. Therefore, every writer, who has since 
written the tale, has either taken his authority second- 
hand, or he has been obliged to take the story from the 
relation of Father Biard. Yet, in spite of the fact that 
this relation is the original and only authority, it seems 
that it is impossible for some writers, and able and 
noted writers at that, to relate the story truthfully, in 
accordance with the facts, and without insinuations 
and innuendos which change the facts. As an example 
of this inability of most English writers of history to 
write of any event in which the Jesuits were actors with 
truthfulness and sincerity, let us quote from the histori- 
cal writings of John Fiske. Fiske ranks high as a writer 
of American history. In his work "New France and 
New England," published in 1902, he relates the Argall 
incident in the following words: 

"When the Jonas arrived on the Acadian coast, the 
chief of the expedition, a gentleman of the court named 
La Saussaye, set up a standard bearing Madame de 
Guercheville's coat of arms. At Port Royal he picked 
up a couple of Jesuits and thence stood for Penobscot 
Bay, but first he entered Frenchman's Bay at Mount 
Desert, and dropped anchor there, for the place attract- 
ed him. Presently a spot was found so charming that 
it was decided to make a settlement there. It was on 
the western shore of Somes Sound, between Flying 
Mountain and Fernald Cove. Scarcely had work be- 
gun there, when a sloop of war came into the sound, 
carrying fourteen guns, and at her masthead was flying 
the little red flag of England. She was commanded by 
young Captain Samuel Argall, who had come all the 



124 The Makers of Maine 

way from James river to fish for cod, but incidentally 
Sir Thomas Dale, who was then governing Virginia 
under the title of High Marshall, had instructed him to 
look out for any Frenchmen who might have ventured 
to trespass upon the territory granted by King James 
to the Virginia Company. Argall had picked up some 
Indians in Penobscot Bay who told him of the white 
men at Mount Desert, and from their descriptions he 
recognized the characteristic shrugs and bows of French 
men. When his flag appeared in Somes Sound, the 
French commander, La Saussaye, with some of the more 
timid ones, took to the woods, but a few bold spirits 
tried to defend their ship. It was of no use. After 
two or three raking shots the English boarded and 
took possession of her. The astute Argall searched 
La Saussaye's baggage until he found his commission 
from the French government, which he quietly tucked 
into his pocket. After a while La Sausaye, overcome 
by hunger, emerged from his hiding-place and was 
received with extreme politeness by Argall, who ex- 
pressed much regret for the disagreeable necessity under 
which he had laboured. It was a pity to have to dis- 
turb such estimable gentlemen, but really this land 
belonged to King James and not to King Louis. Of 
course, however, the noble chevalier must be acting 
under a royal commission, which would lay the whole 
burden of the affair upon the shoulders of King Louis 
and exonerate the officers who were merely acting under 
orders. So spake the foxy Argall, adding with his 
blandest smile that, just as a matter of formal courtesy, 
he would like to see the commission. We can fancy the 
smile growing more grim and Mephistophelean as the 
bewildered Frenchman hunted and hunted. When 
at length it appeared that La Saussaye could produce 
no such document Argall began to bluster and swear. 



The Argall Outrage 125 

He called the Frenchmen pirates, and confiscated all 
their property scarcely leaving a coat to their backs. 
Then, as he had not room enough for all the prisoners, 
he put La Saussaye, with one of the Jesuit fathers and 
thirteen men, into an open boat and left them to their 
fate, which turned out to be a kindly one, for after a 
few days they were picked up by a French merchant 
ship and carried back to the Old World." 

From the foregoing, would not a reader of history 
draw the inference, and carry away with him the idea 
that Argall and his company of Englishmen were 
strictly within their rights, and that the Frenchmen 
were trespassers upon the domains of the English King? 
Would not one also carry away the impression that 
Argall was only a shrewd and able English commander, 
using justifiable means of deception for the advancement 
of the interests of his King? I venture to say that 
such is the impression that most readers of history 
have of that event, which is rightly called, by those 
who know the truth, — "the Argall outrage." 

Indeed so worthy and credible and dignified a 
historian as Bancroft, himself, describes the St. Sauv- 
eur affair contrary to the truth in some particulars. 
Why he does so, it is hard to understand. For instance 
he says, that the English, under Argall, bombarded the 
French fort at St. Sauveur. We know, from the reading 
of the Jesuit Relation, that the French had no time to 
erect intrenchments, much less a fort, and, besides, we 
know that the French commander. La Saussaye, act- 
ually did not take ordinary military precautions. In 
addition, Bancroft has made the further and inexcu- 
sable error of saying that Argall put a part of the French 
company, after the fight, on board French vessels. 
Whereas, we know that the truth was that La Saussaye, 
Father Mass6, and thirteen others were mercilessly 



126 The Makers of Maine 

cast off in an open boat; but they made their way east- 
ward, as best they could by the aid of oars, coasting 
along this shore until they came to the southern part of 
Nova Scotia, where they found a trading vessel in 
which they secured a passage to St. Malo. 

While we are upon the matter of misstating history, 
a point that I have mentioned before, and shall have 
to mention again, I desire to call attention to the error 
made by Williamson, the Historian of Maine, whose 
history is reckoned to be the best authority, it is not 
out of the way to mention it now. As the location of 
the St. Sauveur settlement, which was broken up by 
Argall, was on the shore of what is now called, on maps 
of Maine, Frenchman's Bay. The truth is that the 
name Frenchman's Bay was given to this inlet of the 
sea long after the time when the French were at St. 
Sauveur. Yet, Williamson relates that the name 
was given to these waters for the reason that a French 
priest, Nicholas d'Aubri, was lost here on an island. 
For his authority he refers to Sullivan, the Historian 
of the District of Maine, who tells the story with the 
important difference that he locates the scene on the 
west side of what is now the Bay of Fundy, which, as 
we have learned before from Champlain's History, and 
Lescarbot's History, was called French Bay by De 
Monts, but not because of d'Aubri's adventure. Wil- 
liamson has confused the whole matter. The truth is, 
as we have shown before, the first French expedition 
named what is now the Bay of Fundy, "French Bay," 
and it was there that this French priest was lost, and 
not years afterwards at what is now Frenchman's Bay. 

The statement of Sullivan, in his History of the 
District of Maine, that "there were anciently many 
French settlements on that part of the Bay which is 
opposite to the Banks of Mount Desert, as well as on 



The Argall Outrage 127 

the island itself," is a gratuitous assertion. In fact, 
the only ancient settlement upon this bay was that of 
St. Sauveur in 1613, as we have just related. 



CHAPTER XVII 

The Jesuits are Carried to Virginia 
AND England 

Argall divided the captive French. He placed 
fifteen in one of their boats to make their way back to 
France as best they could, and fifteen he took with him 
to Virginia; in the latter company Father Biard was in- 
cluded, and fifteen had made their escape when the 
attack was made and were on shore with the pilot. 
This latter company later joined the fifteen that Ar- 
gall had sent adrift, and after many vicissitudes they 
arrived safely at St. Malo in France. Father Biard relates 
the adventures of himself and his comrades in Virginia. 
They were not welcomed there. The good priest was 
sadly disappointed in Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of 
Virginia, "Marshall of Virginia," as he calls him. He 
was told that Dale was a great friend to the French as 
he had been a soldier and pensioner of Henry the Great. 
"But," says Father Biard, "our preachers did not take 
their text from the Gospels. For this charming Mar- 
shall, who had the fibre and character of a Frenchman, 
as they said, when he heard an account of us, talked 
nothing but ropes and gallows and of having every one 
of us hanged. We were badly frightened, and some 
lost their peace of mind, expecting nothing less than to 
ignominiously walk up a ladder to be let down disgrace- 
fully by a rope." 

However, they were saved from death by no other 
than Argall himself, who alleged his promise and word 



Jesuits Carried to Virginia and England 129 

given to them in Maine that they should suffer no harm. 
It was decided that Argall should return to Maine and 
Acadia, taking Father Biard and his companies with 
him, and should plunder and burn and destroy all the set- 
tlements of the French. They went first to St. Sauveur; 
completed the destruction of the fortifications there, and 
tore down the cross. Then they searched for the De 
Monts settlement on the St. Croix. Argall desired Father 
Biard to guide them, but his refusal, as he says, "caused 
him to be in complete disgrace with Argall and in great 
danger of his life." Argall did not attempt to force Father 
Biard to guide him to Port Royal, after his refusal to point 
out the St. Croix settlement and Father Biard claims that 
Argall captured an Indian Sagamore who showed him the 
way to Port Royal. It seems that some of the French 
who were around and about Port Royal believed that 
Father Biard guided the English to the settlement. And 
Francis Parkman, the historian, author of "Pioneers of 
New France," and "The Jesuits in North America," ac- 
cepts the belief, as he readily accepts every aspersion upon 
the character of a Jesuit. It is true that Father Biard 
passes over the incident of the capture of the Sagamore 
with less comment than he usually indulges in; he does 
not give the name of the Sagamore; and although he 
knew and admits that some of the French charged him 
with treachery, he does not reply and defend himself 
fully and carefully as he usually does in reference "to 
other false charges against the Jesuits. Yet it is diffi- 
cult, in view of his whole career of probity and honor, 
to believe that he could have been guilty of such a base 
act of treason and disloyalty to his countrymen. 

The English burned and destroyed the Port Royal 
settlement, and looted the place even to the extent of 
taking away the boards, bolts, locks and nails. No- 



130 THE Makers of Maine 

vember 9th, 1613, the English sailed away from Port 
Royal, intending to return to Virginia. 

Father Biard was aboard a ship commanded by one 
Lieutenant Turnel. The ships were separated in a great 
storm, and the ship commanded by Turnel was obliged 
to make its way to the Azores. These islands were in- 
habited by Catholic people. Turnel, whom Father 
Biard now calls, "the Captain," because he was in 
command of the vessel which was separated from 
Argall's command during the storm, believed with the 
other Englishmen, that Father Biard was a traitor to the 
French and at heart a Spaniard, if not one by birth. I 
will quote the following conversation from Biard's Re- 
lation: 

"Once when he was feeling very repentant, he called 
Father Biard and held with him the following conversa- 
tion, which I here insert almost word for word; for this 
Captain spoke good French, and many other common 
languages, besides Italian and Greek, which he under- 
stood very well; he was a man of great intelligence 
and a thorough student. 'Father Biard,' (said he) 
'God is angry at us, I see it clearly; he is angry at us, 
I say but not at you; angry at us because we went to 
make war on you without first giving you notice, which 
is contrary to the rights of nations. But I protest 
that it was contrary to my advice and my inclination. 
I did not know what to do, I had to follow, I was merely 
a servant. But I tell you I see very clearly that God's 
wrath is kindled against us, but not against you, although 
on your account; for you do nothing but suffer.' The 
Captain pausing here, you may judge whether or not 
the Jesuit failed to make a suitable answer. The Cap- 
tain took up another phase of the question. 'But, 
Father Biard,' (says he) 'it is strange that your 
countrymen from Port Royal should accuse you 



Jesuits Carried to Virginia and England i3i 

thus.' The Father answers: 'But, Sir, have you ever 
heard me slander them?' 'By no means,' he says, 
'but I have clearly observed that when evil things 
are said of them, both before Captain Argall and be- 
fore me, you have always defended them, of which I 
am a good witness.' 'Sir,' (the Father says) 'draw 
your own conclusions from that, and judge which have 
God and truth on their side, whether the slanderers 
or the charitable.' 'I know that very well,' says the 
Captain, 'but. Father Biard, did not charity make you 
lie when you told me that we should find nothing but 
misery at Port Royal?' 'Pardon me, answers the 
Father, 'I beg you to remember that I told you only 
that when I was there I saw and found nothing but 
misery.* 

The foregoing relation of this conversation may 
throw more light upon Father Biard's character than 
pages of argument. And I consider the question 
important, because, upon whether we accept the Jesuit's 
relation of the attack of the English and their actions, 
or the version that has come down to us from the English 
depends entirely our view of this period of history 
and the right and wrong of all the acts of hostility 
between the English and the French and Indians which 
occurred afterwards. 

While the ship was at the Azores the Jesuits re- 
mained hidden in the hold of the vessel for three whole 
weeks, so that they would not be discovered by the 
Catholic people of the Azores, who would have wrecked 
summary vengeance upon the English for keeping 
Catholic priests prisoners. 

Upon their arrival in England, the Jesuits were 
treated with great consideration, were entertained by 
gentlemen holding official positions and were sent back 
to France with great honor. Father Biard relates 



132 The Makers of Maine 

his experiences, and tells his impressions of the English 
Church and Churchmen. The following is an interest- 
ing excerpt from the "Relations," as showing the Jesuit's 
observations of religious institutions with which he was 
not familiar and concerning which he had doubtless 
been misinformed before his visit to England. 

"Now during this sojourn all kinds of people went 
to see them and some from a great distance, through 
curiosity to see Jesuits dressed in their robes, as they 
were then and always have been until their return to 
France. Ministers, Justices, gentlemen, and others 
came to confer with them, even, a Lord of the Great 
Council wished to have the pleasure ol pitting four 
Ministers against them in debate. I say Ministers, 
to make myself intelligible to the French, for in Eng- 
land they call them Priests. And the chief one in the 
debate was an Archdeacon, for the English still have a 
great many things in common with the Catholic Church, 
as the Order of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Arch- 
bishops, Bishops, Priests, Archpriests, Archdeacons 
Curates, Canons, etc. ; the Episcopal laying on of 
hands in the ordination of Priests and lesser orders, 
and in the confirmation of children; the Chrism and its 
ceremoniefc, the sign of the Cross, the Image of this 
and of other things; the Psalmody and usual forms 
of worship, the prescribed Saints' days, the Vigils, 
Fasts, Lent, Abstinence from meat on Friday and Sat- 
urday; priestly robes and consecrated vessels. And 
those who condemn all these things, as the Calvinists 
of France and of Scotland do, and call them damnable 
superstitions and inventions of the anti-Christ, are by 
the English called Puritans, and are detested by them as 
abominable plagues." 



CHAPTER XVIII 
Miracles In Maine 

In closing his "Relations" of the year 1613, Father 
Biard writes an account of some occurrences of a mira- 
culous nature which happened during his period of ser- 
vice as a missionary priest in New France. I shall 
briefly relate the facts as he tells them, without discus- 
sion or comment, leaving the matter to my readers 
for their own opinions. The Jesuit was informed that 
at Baye Ste. Marie there was an Indian woman at the 
point of death who desired to see him. He took a guide 
and went to the woman. They found that she had 
been afflicted with a disease for three weeks and was 
now stretched out by the fire in the manner in which 
the savages placed their sick when their cases became 
hopeless. He instructed her in the truths of religion 
as well as he could and prayed for her, and left her a 
cross to hang about her neck. The next day he returned 
and found her well and happy and engaged in heavy 
work carrying burdens. 

A second happened at Pentagoet (the Penobscot 
River). Father Biard was there in company with the 
Sieur de Biencourt, and according to his custom was 
visiting the sick. The Indians showed him one who 
was not expected to live, having been sick for three 
monthsc This Indian was in the thoeres of a violent 
attack, speaking only with difficulty and bathed in a 
cold perspiration, the forerunner of death. The priest 
prayed for him and had him kiss a cross, which he left 



184 The Makers of Maine 

with him and then departed. A day or two afterwards, 
Biencourt was trading in his boat, and this Indian came 
to him in company with others, and was well and happy 
displaying his cross, and with great demonstrations 
of joy expressed his gratitude to Father Biard. 

The third is as follows: Father Biard went with 
Sieur de la Motte to St. Saveur. Coming towards the 
cabins of the Indians they heard cries and loud lamen- 
tations. Having asked their guide what it meant he 
replied that some one was dead and this was the mourn- 
ing. Approaching nearer they met a boy who said 
to the preist: "Someone is dying. Run fast, perhaps 
you can baptize him before he really dies." They ran 
as fast as they could, and when they arrived they found 
the savages drawn up in a line as if on parade, and in 
front of them walked a distracted father holding his 
dying child in his arms. Father Biard asked the father 
if he would be willing to have his child baptized. The 
poor simple fellow said not a word, but placed the child 
in the priest's arms. Father Biard called for water at 
once, and putting the child in the arms of Sieur de la 
Motte, as his godfather, baptized him, calling him 
Nickolas. the name of the Sieur. The Indians crowded 
around in silence as if expecting some great miracle 
to follow. Father Biard prayed to God that these 
poor heathens might be enlightened, and then he gave 
the child to its mother who was there. The mother 
immediately offered the child the breast, and he began 
at once to receive nourishment. The savages fell to 
their knees in astonishment. The child recovered 
rapidly and in a month was perfectly healthy. The 
Indians looked upon Father Biard as more than a man. 

Is it at all doubtful, then, that Father Biard was 
telling the litteral truth when he wrote, speaking of 
what results had been accomplished by the Jesuit 



Miracles in Maine 135 

m issionaries in their sojourn at Port Royal and their 
travels and work among the Indians in Acadia and 
Maine up to the time of the destruction of St. Saveur 
and Port Royal by Argall and his Englishmen? — 

"But yet, on the other hand, it is a great result 
that the French have won the confidence and friendli- 
ness of the savages, through the great familiarity and 
intercourse which they have had with them. For 
the foundation must always be laid before raising the 
capital; that is, we must make them citizens, or good 
hosts and friends before making them brothers. Now 
this confidence and this intimacy is already so great that 
we live among them with less fear than we live in Paris. 
For in Paris we cannot sleep without having the door 
well bolted; but here we close them against the wind 
only, and sleep no less securely for keeping them open. 
At first, they fled from us, and feared us ; now they wish 
us with them. When we first disembarked and visited 
St. Saveur, and pretended that we did not like the place, 
and that we thought of going elsewhere, these simple 
natives wept and lamented. On the other hand, the 
Sagamore of Kadesquit, called Betsabes, came to per- 
suade us, with a thousand promises, to go to his place, 
having heard that we had some intentions of making 
a settlement there. Is it a small thing to have such 
a foundation of justice in our colonies, and this so sure 
pledge of great success? And we must not conclude 
that other nations have borne this friendship as well 
as we, for we are eye-witnesses to the fact that these 
savages, having, (as they supposed) some advantage 
over the English, threw themselves upon them with 
fury, thinking, I believe, to get revenge for the injury 
that had been done to us; but they were not successful 
in their attack. Likewise, towards the end of the year 
1611, the Hollanders merely wished to land at Cape de 



136 The Makers of Maine 

la Heve to take in some fresh water, our savages assailed 
them fiercely, and made away with six of them, among 
whom, was the captian of the ship. It seems to me that 
we will be unworthy of this friendship, if we do not so 
act that it will avail them in learning to love Him from 
Whom we receive all our blessings." 

In closing this discussion and narration of the Port 
Royal mission of the French, which, as I have stated 
many times (because I desire the reader to bear it 
in mind continually), included what is now the State 
of Maine, or at least by admission of the English them- 
selves, all of Maine as far to the West as the Kennebec 
and Androscoggin rivers, I will briefly mention the 
leading points of the argument of Father Biard sustaining 
the contention to the title of that French to Maine is 
far better than the title of the English. Later, in dis- 
cussing the English claims to title, I shall have occasion 
to again refer to this argument (a Jesuit argument 
and therefore a diabolically ingenious distortion of lo- 
gic according to the deluded and misled descendants 
of the Puritans of New England.) 

The English (so says Father Biard) do not dispute 
with the French all of New France. They grant a New 
France bounded by the shores of the Gulf and River of 
St. Lawrence, and not extending further South than a 
line drawn across the northern part of the State running 
through what is now Frederickton, N. B., Houlton 
Me., Mt. Katahdin and the northern shores of Moose- 
head Lake; the English claiming these bounds, at the 
time Father Biard wrote, by a patent of King James* 
grant, whose words are these: "We give them all the 
lands up to the 45th degree which do not actually be- 
long to any Christian Prince." At that very time the 
French were in possession of this region, as is attested 
by the writings of Champlain and Lescarbot. 



Miracles In Maine 137 

Now, says Father Biard, it is true and acknowledged 
by all that the Bretons and Normans first discovered 
the great Banks and New Foundland in the year 1504 
and continually fished and traded there ever after- 
wards. 

In addition, Fr. Biard claims by reason of Jacques 
Cartier's voyages and discoveries, and argues that if 
the English contention is correct, that their sailing 
u p the James River of Virginia gave them dominion over 
a region, not merely seven or eight leagues on each side 
of the river, but thirty or forty times further than the 
human eye can see, then Cartier's last voyage in 1534 
up the St. Lawrence gave the French an equally sound 
claim to the same amount of territory on each side of 
the St. Lawrence. 

Also, employing and invoking the argument of 
common knowledge and common consent of the world, 
Father Biard argues that all the maps in Europe repre- 
sented New France as extending south as far as the 
38th or 39th parallel, that is, to the southern part of New 
England, to Long Island Sound. 

This chapter closes the story of the first Maine 
mission. In other essays I shall take up the thread 
of the English settlements and the writings of the 
Englishmen which throw light upon this period of 
Maine history, so that the reader may compare the two 
peoples and their records in Maine. And we shall try 
to look at the history of this epoch of stirring time and 
stirring deeds through the eyes of the adventurous 
Englishmen who were struggling to get a foot-hold upon 
this much sought, much desired domain. Again, later 
we will come back to the French and their missionary 
priests in Maine at a somewhat later period. 



CHAPTER XIX 

WEYMOUTH'S Voyage— He Captures 
Some Indians 

In the first chapter which I wrote on this sub j ect 
I mentioned the voyage of Captain Waymouth, the 
EngHshman, to these shores, in the year 1605, and 
in speaking of the romantic scenery of Maine, so little 
appreciated by the present inhabitants of this state, I 
quoted from Rosier (historian of Waymouth's voyage) 
the description of the scenery on and about the Ken- 
nebec. Waymouth's voyage in 1605 is of some im- 
portance in the history of the English settlements in 
Maine and the English claim of title; therefore, I de- 
sire to treat of it now at greater length. 

Captain Waymouth was a British naval officer who 
had been engaged for some time prior to his voyage to 
Maine in the unavailing search for the famous north- 
west passage to India. Upon his return from the Arc- 
tic regions he was engaged to undertake another voyage 
ostensibly for the same purpose, but actually for the 
purpose of finding some spot suitable for the establish- 
ing of an English colony. It may seem strange to 
my readers that there should have been any necessity 
for concealing the object of such a voyage, but the fact 
is that at that time there existed such a jealousy among 
the maritime nations of Europe, that these enterprises 
of discovery were conducted with the most profound 
secrecy. 

It was a part of Captain Waymouth's duty to keep 



Waymouth's Voyage 139 

a diary, or "log," of his voyage — nautical statistics, 
observations, and all the facts necessary to give his 
employers full information of the value of his discover- 
ies. This journal was kept by James Rosier. And so, 
as we got our facts for the story of the French settle" 
ment of Acadia, our historical data, from the "Rela- 
tions des Jesuites" — daily narrations of the life of the 
French adventurers and their missionary priests, now 
we get our facts for the history of the doings of these 
Englishmen from an equally reliable original source, — 
Rosier 's Journal of Waymouth's Voyage. 

For a long time it was believed thatWaymouth 
sailed up the Penobscot River; but I think that it is 
now quite universally admitted that that belief was 
erroneous, and that the truth is that he explored the 
Sagadahoc and the Androscoggin. 

Mr. George Prince, the historian, in his edition of 
Rosier 's Narrative of Waymouth's Voyage, argues that 
Waymouth sailed up the Georges River; his strongest 
objection to the Kennebec is that the mountains which 
the voyagers saw from the coast could not have been 
the White Mountains; but must have been the high 
hills back of Camden. His argument does not ap- 
peal to me as being convincing. 

His ship, the "Archangel," was fitted out by the 
Earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel, and sailed 
from England March 5th, 1605. On the 17th of May 
they discovered Mongehan Island, which they named 
St. George's, and anchored on the north side of the 
island. I think all the readers of these essays are fa- 
miliar with the location on the map of Monhegan. It 
is well known as a summer resort at the present time. 
Rosier says: "From this point we might discern the 
mainland from the west, southwest, to the east, north- 
east; and a great way (as it then seemed, and we after- 



140 The Makers of Maine 

wards found it) up into the main we might discern very 
high mountains, though the main seemed but lowland." 
Now it will be noticed that the writer does not give the 
course as to the direction of these very high mountains; 
and without doubt for a purpose, because as I have 
stated, it was the intention of the promoters of the 
voyage to publish the journal and thereby to arouse 
interest in England and to induce emigration, but it 
was not their intention to inform the world of the exact 
location of their proposed settlement until the time was 
ripe for so doing. But these Englishmen were familiar 
enough with high hills and with mountains in the 
British Isles, so that they would not be so impressed by 
the Penobscot and Camden hills as to dignify them by 
the expression "very high mountains." Is it at all 
unlikely that the very high mountains that they saw in 
the distance were the White Mountains of New Hamp- 
shire? Especially when we ourselves know that the 
White mountains can be distinctly seen on a clear day 
from off the coast of Maine. 

"The next day being Whitsunday," says the his- 
torian, "because we rode too much open to the sea and 
winds, we weighed anchor about twelve o'clock, and 
came along to the other islands more adjoining to the 
main, and in the road directly with the mountains, 
about three leagues from the first island where we had 
anchored." If they proceeded towards the shore in 
the direction of the White Mountains until they "came 
along to other islands more adjoining to the main," 
then they came along to what is now Squirrel Island 
and the other islands, in that neighborhood which are 
now summer resorts. "We all praised God," says 
Rosier, "for his unspeakable goodness in directing us 
into so secure a harbor; in remembrance whereof, we 
named it Pentecost Harbor." This "Pentecost Harbor" 



Waymouth's Voyage ui 

is nothing else than our Boothbay Harbor. A sig- 
nificent evidence of this is that they relate that when 
they surveyed all the islands about they found upon 
one of them a sandy cover where small vessels could an- 
chor, and near by, a pond of fresh water which flowed 
over the bank. This description fits Squirrel Island 
perfectly. 

On Thursday, May 30th, Captain Waymouth took 
a boat and thirteen men and started on a tour of dis- 
covery, leaving fourteen men on board the ship. After 
their departure, three canoes with Indians came down 
to the ship. The Indians were invited on board, 
they came and traded with the Englishmen. The next 
day Waymouth returned and reported with great ela- 
tion that he had discovered "a great river which trended 
into the main about forty miles," an excellent river, 
suitable for trade and commerce and for the establish- 
ing of a colony. 

Now comes the narration of the despicable act of 
kidnapping thejindians. Before starting out on the 
voyage, of exploration up the river which the Captain 
discovered, he formed the resolution to take with him 
back to England when he returned, five or six of the 
natives, that "they might be taught habits of civiliza- 
tion." We know very well that he never was actuated 
by any such phlanthropic motives; that his intention 
was to exhibit them as curiosities to the English people 
and thereby to help in arousing interest in this new field 
for English adventure. And that he succeeded in 
arousing some kind of interest in England with his Indian 
savages is attested by no less an authority than Shakes- 
peare, himself, who says in the Tempest, Act II, Sec. 2 
— "when they would not give a doit to relieve a lame 
beggar, they would lay out ten to see a dead Indian." 
It seems that these Englishmen had a comfortable way 



142 The Makers of Maine 

of saving the Indian's soul and making money with 
his body, Hke the pious Pilgrims afterwards at Ply- 
mouth, who wrote home to their brethren in England 
and Holland, urging them to come out to this country 
where much heavenly credit could be stored up for 
the life in the next world and "muche gainful plunder" 
could be accumulated for the present life. Three of 
these Indian "guests" were sent to Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, Governor of Plymouth in England; and al- 
though we have the greatest respect for the memory of 
this energetic patron of the English colonists in New 
England for his disinterested efforts in their behalf, yet 
we feel inclined to skeptically smile when Gorges 
writes, — "this accident must be acknowledged the 
means under God of putting on foot and giving life to 
all our plantations." 

Rosier writes that one morning an Indian of super- 
ior rank appeared, coming from the eastward and with 
him in the canoe were six others. They brought an 
invitation from the Bashaba at Penobscot for Captain 
Waymouth to come there and trade; but the Captain 
had strong suspicions that their design was to rescue 
the five whom he had secreted in the hold of his ship, 
so their presence on board was not encouraged. 

On Tuesday, June 11th, they passed up the river 
with the ship about twenty-six miles. This would 
bring them to anchor just opposite the present city of 
Bath. In the first chapter I have quoted Rosier 's de- 
scription of the sail up the river which he maintains 
to be superior in every respect to the Loire, the Seine, 
the Bordeaux, and the Rio Grande. Going ashore 
for a time, he says: "In our progress we passed over 
very good ground, pleasant and fertile, fit for pasture, 
for the space of some three miles, having but little wood, 
and that oak, like that which stands left in our pasture 



Waymouth's Voyage 143 

in England, good and great, fit timber for any use. 
It resembled a stately park with many old trees, some 
with withered tops, and some flourishing with2their 
green boughs." 5^ 

Now, it is a strange thing, that during this very 
summer of 1605, while Captain Way mouth was ex- 
ploring the coast and the river at this point, the French 
expedition of De Monts, with Champlain and Les- 
carbot and the other French gentlemen, was exploring 
the very same territory, as I have stated in detail be- 
fore. It would seem as though, if they had not met, 
they might at least have come across some signs of 
each other's presence. But Rosier says: "For this, 
by the way, we diligently observed that no place 
either about the island or up in the main, or along 
the river, we could discover any token or sign that ever 
any Christian has been before, or which either by cutting 
wood, or digging for water, or setting up crosses, a thing 
never omitted by any Christian traveller, we should 
have seen some mention of it." Is he telling the 
truth? It may be. For I may mention here that the 
English then, and for a long time afterwards had a 
mistaken notion of the Kennebec River, a mistake 
which the French did not make. Waymouth, going 
up the river from Boothbay Harbor to Merrymeeting 
Bay, and then continuing, from there goes to the west 
up the Androscoggin, thinking that it is the same river, 
quite ignorant of the real Kennebec which is closed 
from view by the projecting of a long neck of land. 
Neither Waymouth nor George Popham knew of such 
a river although they had been told of it by the Indians. 

Waymouth went up the Androscoggin, first to the 
falls at what is now Brunswick. Rosier says, in regard 
to the beauty of the river: "I cannot by relation suf- 
ficiently demonstrate. That which I can say in general 



144 The Makers of Maine 

is this: what profit or pleasure soever is described and 
truly verified in the former part of the river, is wholly 
doubled in this." 

On the 16th of June they set|sail for their return 
to England and July 18th they arrived at Dartmouth 
harbor, with their furs and skins, their five Indians, 
and their glowing accounts of the country. At about 
the same time of their arrival in England, Lord Arun- 
del and the Earl of Southampton transferred their 
interests in the expedition to Lord Chief Justice Popham 
and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, two gentlemen who were 
well and favorably known in England at the time, 
and whose names have figured prominently in history 
ever since. The new company petitioned the Crown 
for Letters Patent, and a charter was granted for two 
colonies, the London Company and the Plymouth 
Company; also called the South Virginia and the North 
Virginia Companies. The London, or South Virginia 
Company, established the Jamestown, Virginia, Colony, 
April 27th, 1607. Thus we see that we sons of Maine 
are able to say with perfect truth and without exagger- 
ation that the attractive scenery, the fertile soil, and the 
natural resources of the country about the Sagadahoc 
and the Androscoggin Rivers, so glowingly described 
by Captain Waymouth and his companions, were 
the magnets which drew Englishmen across the ocean 
and caused the establishment of the ancient and proud 
Virginia Colony, and that Maine, so falsely called "the 
daughter of Masachusetts," is really, in fact, the cause 
of the existence of all the thirteen original colonies of 
America, in a way, the Father of the great English- 
speaking American nation. You may call this exag- 
geration, if you will. You may say that it is taking 
a violent poetic license with sober history; that it is 
allowing imagination to run riot with judgement. But 



Waymouth's Voyage us 

I hold to my opinion, nevertheless, that giving credit 
honestly to cause and effect, I have made no exaggera- 
tion. 



CHAPTER XX 

Strange ill-luck Pursues the English 
Efforts to Colonize Maine 

The South Virginia, or London Company expedi- 
tion was a success and Jamestown, Virginia, was the 
result. But strange mishaps befell the ships first sent 
out to found the northern colony, which was 
to be establishd in the region explored by Waymouth. 
The first ship sent out was commanded by Captain 
Chalounge. The colony was placed on board, and also 
two of Waymouth's Indian "guests" to act as pilots 
when they arrived at the shores of Maine. But ill- 
luck, or perhaps (who knows) the judgement of Divine 
Providence, offended by the Englishmen's inhumanity, 
seems to have pursued every attempt to establish an 
English colony in Maine, every attempt that is to say, 
with which the fact of the stolen Indians was in any 
way connected. As for instance, witness the following: 
The ship commanded by Captain Chalounge was under 
orders to follow a due westerly course to Cape Breton, 
and then to set the course for the Sagadahoc. But 
Captain Chalounge, without cause, disobeyed orders, 
and changed his course to go by way of the Western 
Islands. He was captured by a Spanish fleet, his crew 
and the colonists made prisoners, and the object of the 
voyage was frustrated. Two of Waymouth's Indians, as 
I have said, were on board this vessel. 

Second instance : A few days after Chalounge sailed, 
Lord Chief Justice Popham fitted out another ship as 



ILL-LUCK OF English Colonists u? 

aid for the first, with a few more colonists and ad- 
ditional supplies. On board were two more of Way- 
mouth's Indians. This ship sailed direct to Sagadahoc. 
Of course, upon their arrival they found no signs of Cap- 
tain Chalounge's company, consequently they elected to 
return to England. But the Plymouth, or North Vir- 
ginia Company was so much encouraged by the glow- 
ing descriptions of the members of this expedition, even 
more favorable than the report of Captain Waymouth, 
that it fitted out two more vessels, one commanded by 
George Popham, brother of the Lord Chief Justice, 
and the other commanded by Raleigh Gilbert, nephew 
of Sir Walter Raleigh — "two as noble and gallant com- 
manders as ever faced the dangers of the elements or 
of man," (to borrow the words of an enthusiastic 
writer.) This expedition also carried two of Way- 
mouth's Indians. 

Now it would seem as though at last success would 
crown their efiforts. But their record is one of disaster 
and failure. They sailed from Plymouth, England, 
May 31st, 1607. On August 17th they barely escaped 
destruction on the lee shore of Seguin. They landed 
at the mouth of the Kennebec, at the spot where Fort 
Popham now stands. They spent one year there but 
the winter was one of extraordinary severity. Their 
governor, George Popham, died. Raleigh Gilbert re- 
turned to England. The colony was left without a 
head. The members became disheartened and dis- 
couraged. They broke up and dispersed. Some re- 
turned to England, some went to Virginia, and there is 
a French tradition to the efifect that some made their 
way to the neighboring regions of Monhegan and Pem- 
aquid. 

It seems that these settlers explored the valley of 
the Androscoggin for some distance. They relate that 



148 The Makers of Maine 

on the 25th of September, 1607, Captain Gilbert with 
seventeen men left the mouth of the river to search 
for the headwaters of the Sagadahoc. They came to 
a flat, low island, "where was a great cataract or down- 
fall of water, which runneth by on both sides of the 
island, very shoal and swift," This description fits 
Pejepscot Falls at Brunswick. They carried their 
boat around the falls and went a league further up and 
camped for the night. The next day they went another 
league and could go no further on account of the falls. 
This can be no other than the Little River Falls at Lis- 
bon. Some of them went further by land till they 
came to an Indian settlement at the junction of a small 
river. This corresponds to the Sabattus River. Here 
they erected a cross. 

Although this Popham and Gilbert colony for a 
year cannot be counted as a permanent settlement in 
Maine, as the Jamestown settlement is counted in Vir- 
ginia yet as a political event, its importance can not 
be overestimated. I have stated in this essay that the 
voyage of Waymouth in 1605 was the means of estab- 
lishing the first English colony on the American conti- 
nent. Now I will say that the Popham and Gilbert 
colony on the Sagadahoc was the means of establishin g 
the title of England as against France to the whole 
New England territory. Without this colony it would 
have been impossible for England, under her own laws, 
to have made out any claim to priority of title to New 
England. For it was a maxim of English law that 
"prescription without possession does not give title." 
In the year 1624 M. Tillieres, the French Ambassador, 
represented to the English government that France, 
claimed the territory of New England as a part of New 
France (and not unjustly, as I have shown in a pre- 
ceding chapter in which I recited the claim of France as 



iLL-LUCK OF ENGLISH COLONISTS 149 

Stated by Father Biard,S. J.) The English government 
made a full reply to the statement of the French ambas- 
sador, and in no part of the reply is any mention what- 
soever made of the colony of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. 
The English argument is based almost entirely upon the 
settlements at the mouth of the Kennebec in 1607. 

In addition it may be said that, although the set- 
tlement of 1607 did not continue permanently at Fort 
Popham, yet from that year on there was never a time 
when Englishmen were not living in Maine along the 
coast and for a few miles inland. Two ships came 
over in 1607 carrying the Popham colony — the "Gift 
of God," and the "Mary and John." During the year 
of 1607, another ship was built by the colonists at Fort 
Popham, the "Virginia of Sagadahoc," which, by the 
way, was the first ship built on this continent by Eng- 
lish hands. When the colonists at the end of the year 
returned to England they returned in the "Mary and 
John," and the "Virginia of Sagadahoc." The ship 
"Gift of God," with forty-five men, remained behind. 
What became of these men and their ship is doubtful, 
but the weight of evidence tends to prove that they 
went to Pemaquid and Monhegan and became those 
scattered settlements of Englishmen along the coast 
of Maine to whom the Pilgrims at Plymouth in the 
winter of 1622, at the hour of need, turned for food 
to save themselves from starvation, and from whom 
Winslow says: "we not only got a present supply of 
food, but also learned the way to those parts for our 
future benefit. 

In the year 1614 Captain John Smith, of school- 
boy-history fame, built seven fishing boats at Monhe- 
gan, and while his men went on a fishing expedition, he 
himself explored the coast. He writes: "On this 
voyage I tooke the description of the coast as well by 



150 The Makers of Maine 

map as writing and called it New England; but mali- 
cious minds amongst sailors and others, drowned that 
name with the echo of Nusconcus, Canaday and Pema- 
quid; till at my humble suite our most gracious King 
Charles, then Prince of Wales, was pleased to confirm 
it by that title, and did change the barbarous names 
of their principal harbors and habitations for such 
English, that posterity may say, King Charles was their 
Godfather." 

The names of two great Christian men stand forth 
in clear relief amidst the dimness and uncertainty 
of the early history of Maine — Samuel de Champlain, 
Pioneer of New France, — Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Pio- 
neer of New England. In imagination one can picture 
each as the embodiment of the highest type of civiliza- 
tion of his own country. Each was inspired by a lofty 
ambition, by pure patriotism, and by a prophetic in- 
sight into the future. In former chapters I have related 
more or less of the adventures of Champlain along 
these shores, although I have not pursued his career 
into Canada, as, however interesting it may be, it is 
no part of the subject of history which we are discussing. 
I have called the one, pioneer of New France and the 
other pioneer, of New England. Of course, it is under- 
stood that we are speaking of the same country — what 
is now New England — what the French called New 
France. Just as the English arms won and the English 
flag stayed, so the English name overcame the French 
name and remains the name of the country today. 

Gorges conceived the ambition of building up an 
English civilization on the shores of Maine, and amidst 
all political distractions at home, he never lost sight of 
his ambition, and kept up a legal occupancy of Maine. 
Upon the return of Captain John Smith, after his voy- 
age to Monhegan in 1614, Gorges fitted out another 



ILL-LUCK OP ENGLISH COLONISTS 151 

expedition to found another colony in Maine, this one 
to be headed and commanded by Smith himself We 
cannot doubt that if this colony had once landed, on 
this shore, under the leadership of John Smith, neither 
the severity of the climate nor the enmity of the Indians 
nor the encroachments of the French, would ever have 
dislodged it. Smith was an indomitable, a dauntless 
man. His whole life is a romance and this voyage 
and expedition simply make another chapter of vivid 
interest. The expedition was a failure, but through 
no fault of Smith's. It seems as though Fate 
were at war with him, and as though Fate were 
forced to put forth its best endeavors and strain itself 
to defeat this hero. 

The expedition sailed in March 1615; immediately 
this was the signal for all the furies to be let loose. He en- 
countered a terrible storm and was almost shipwrecked. 
He put back into Plymouth and sailed again in June with 
another ship. He was out a few days when he was over- 
taken by an English pirate. His officers begged him to 
surrender as the pirate was of superior force. He refused ; 
and without being obliged to fight the pirate, he "bluffed"' 
him, as the saying is now, and made his escape. Soon after 
this event he met a French pirate in two ships. Again 
his cowardly officers wanted to surrender and refused 
to fight. Smith threatens to blow up the ship with 
himself and all on board, and attacks the French pirates 
and drives them off. Next he meets a fleet of French 
war ships, nine of them. This is too much even for 
John Smith. But again his monumental nerve and 
bluff got him through without surrender; when his offi- 
cers mutiny and refuse to proceed with the voyage. 
Smith goes on board the flag ship of the French Admir- 
al, with no less a purpose than to get aid from the French 
commander to subdue his own mutineers. But while 



152 The Makers of maine 

he was aboard talking with the Frenchman a strange sail 
came into view and the French Admiral gave chase 
carrying poor Smith along with him. Smith's ship 
made its way back to England and reported Smith 
killed by the French, to the great despair of Gorges. 
But Smith is not so easily put "hors du combat." He 
was two months a prisoner and forced to help fight the 
Spaniards. One night while off the coast of France in 
a terrible storm he jumped overboard and swam until 
he was tossed up on an island more dead than alive. 
The peasants helped him to get back to England. And 
strange to say, the very night that he escaped from the 
French ship, this ship was wrecked in the storm and all 
hands were lost. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Ferdinando Gorges Becomes 
Lord of Maine 

In the public school histories, used in the schools 
at the time when the writer was at the age when it is 
deemed fitting by the educational powers- that-be to 
inscribe upon the clean and fresh tablets of the minds 
of the children under their charge, misstatement, mis- 
information, and distortion of facts, under the sacred 
name of history, it w^as related as historical truth, that 
Massachusetts was the mother of Maine, and that 
Maine was first settled in 1630, at and about the present 
tow^n of York, in York County, by immigrants from 
mother colony of Massachusetts. No well informed 
student of history today believes any such glaring 
falsehoods. But unfortunately many citizens of Maine 
are not as well informed in history as they should be; 
many have not progressed beyond the stage of the 
above-quoted public school histories. 

I have made it plain in the preceding chapters that 
not only was Maine settled before Massachusetts, and 
that settlers remained along the coast of Maine and 
as far inland as twenty to thirty miles, from the year 
1607 onward indefinitely; but also I have demonstrated 
that Waymouth's voyage to the Kennebec in 1605, 
and the Popham and Gilbert settlement at the mouth 
of the Kennebec in 1607, were the first movements of 
the great English influx of settlement which culmi- 
nated in the thirteen original American States, and 
were the prime causes of that English immigration. 



164 The Makers of Maine 

The historians, who have been looked upon as the 
most authoritative, have ignored the importance of 
Maine in Early history. Even Bancroft does not 
give proper credit for the settlements before the year 
1620 and onwards to 1630. Governor Sullivan, how- 
ever, in his history of Maine, on the authority of 
Sylvanus Davis, Councillor, says that in 1630 there 
were eighty-four families, not counting the fishermen 
at Merrymeeting Bay, Sheepscot and Pemaquid, and 
as many more inland. Williamson's History gives a 
table of the several plantations at that time; in it are 
the following: Piscataqua settlement, 200. York, 
150. Saco, 175. Casco and Pejepscot (Brunswick), 
75. Kennebec, 100. Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, Pema- 
quid, St. Georges and Islands, 500. From this we can 
see that at the time when we have been led to believe 
that Maine was a barren wilderness, inhabited only 
by roving bands of Red Men, there were at least 1500 
white people between York and the Penobscot river. 

I have said I consider that history shows 
that Sir Ferdinando Gorges was one of the greatest 
men of his time in all Europe. Although he was a 
royalist, a high-churchman, and no sympathizer with 
the peculiar religious tenets of the Pilgrims and Puri- 
tans, he saw that Maine was, and must be fated to be 
for many years, the English frontier, and that it must 
be held as a bulwark against the encroachments of 
the French. He was a broadminded, liberal, generous 
man. He aided the Massachusetts Puritans in every 
possible way, although at home he was politically at 
war with that party. Many conflicting grants had 
been made by the Crown, grants of land which over- 
lapped one another and caused continual conflict and 
litigation. Therefore Gorges made a drastic and heroic 
move in the game of politics. 



Ferdinando Gorges 155 

In the year 1639, King Charles I, at the solicita- 
tion of his well beloved and loyal subject, Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, granted the most notable charter ever given 
to a subject by his Prince since the days of chivalry. 
He confirmed all the territory from the Piscataqua to 
the Sagadahoc and extending 120 miles inland, now for 
the first time named and recognized legally as the 
"Province of Maine," to Gorges as a County Palatine 
of which Gorges was the Lord or Count Palatine. As 
every student of history, and especially of the history 
of feudal law, knows, the name "Palatinate" takes us 
back to the days of Charlmagne and the Merovingians. 
During the Middle Ages the title of Lord or Count 
Palatine belonged to a feudal lord who held a frontier 
province with royal judicial powers. It is not neces- 
sary to enumerate here the powers of government and 
administration of justice which it carried. The Pala- 
tinate charter which Gorges received may be read in 
full in Sullivan's History of Maine. Nothing like it, 
before or since, is to be found in all the history of the 
American nation. By it Gorges became the feudal 
lord of the soil of Maine, and Maine was a fief. The 
new Lord of Maine established his government and set 
up his general court at what is now York, which he 
named Georgiana, and which was, as I have stated be- 
fore, the first incorporated city in America. This 
court was established in the year 1640. I have not 
the slightest doubt that if Gorges could have left, or 
would but have left, the life of political turmoil which 
he was living at this time, and had come over here to 
preside over his Province of Maine, his Fief or Pal- 
atinate, he would have made a success of the govern- 
ment of it, and Maine would never have fallen under 
the dominion of Massachusetts. But Gorges was a 
devoted Royalist, who followed his king to the bitter 



156 The Makers of Maine 

end. He died in 1647; King Charles was beheaded in 
1649. Following his death, of course his little kingdom 
here fell to pieces. The inhabitants of Maine began 
to quarrel among themselves and the quarrels grew in 
bitterness. Massachusetts looked on with greedy eyes, 
determined to seize the Province. 

It cannot be doubted that the predominating reas- 
on why Massachusetts, with its semi-religious govern- 
ment and its narrow, illiberal, selfish Puritanism 
would not, and felt that it could not permit the Pro- 
vince of Maine to exist any longer as an independent 
colony, was that the dominant turn of mind of the 
English settlers in Maine was Episcopalian, High 
Church, Royalist, rather easy-going and broad minded, 
and dangerously friendly to the French Roman Cath- 
olics who were their neighbors in the east. Randolph's 
report, 1676, says: "The inhabitants of New Hamp- 
shire, Maine, and the Duke's Province were holding 
a friendly correspondence with their French neighbors, 
while Massachusetts was entertaining a hatred towards 
them." 

It is easy to believe that, had Massachusetts hon- 
orably left the men of Maine alone to work out their 
own problem of government in their own way, the 
High Church Englishmen of Maine would have given 
to the world an example of religious liberality and pro- 
gressiveness equalled only by Lord Baltimore's Cath- 
olics in Maryland, the first instance of religious toler- 
ation in America. That my readers may not think that 
this view is exaggerated if not chimerical, let me quote 
the words of a writer in the Boston Courier of May, 
1851 — Lorenzo Sabine, who published a series of ar- 
ticles on the Public Lands of Maine. Sabine says: 
"But I cannot leave this part of the subject without 
commending the indomitable spirit evinced by Mais- 



Ferdinando Gorges 157 

sachusetts in her struggles to root out Gorges and the 
cavaliers of his planting, out of Maine, and to put] in 
their places the humbler but purer Roundheads of her 
own kindred. Had she faltered when dukes and lords 
signed parchments that conveyed away her soil; had 
she not sought to push her sovereignity over men and 
territories not originally her own; had she not broken 
down French seignories and English fiefdoms, Maine, 
east of Gorges' eastern boundary, the Kennebec, 
might have continued a part of the British Empire to 
this hour." It is hard to conceive that fifty years 
ago such sentiments were entertained. The logic of 
the writer's argument deserves about as much respect 
as his sympathetic view of the compatriots of those 
regicides, whom he calls "the humbler but purer 
Roundheads." 

After the death of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 1647, 
the people of Maine, and by this expression is meant 
the English settlers, seemed to lose heart and confi- 
dence in their future, and in themselves. They appear 
to have lacked independence and self-reliance. One 
might almost imagine that the "fief," the Palatinate 
of Maine was taken seriously and deeply to heart, and 
that the people had become in fact and in truth serfs, 
unable to govern themselves and dependent upon some 
feudal lord to govern them. And as a matter of fact, 
when the High Court of Chancery in England in the 
year 1677 rendered a decision that the acts of Massachu- 
setts in taking military possession of Maine were 
illegal, and that the Province of Maine had descended 
as a fief to the heirs of Gorges, and when Massachusetts 
in obedience to that decision purchased Maine outright, 
both soil and government, from the Gorges heirs, for 
the sum of 1250 pounds sterling, then Massachusetts 
became the feudal Lord-Palatine of the Province of 



158 The Makers of Maine 

Maine — another strange anamoly in the history of this 
country. It was poetic justice that the people of this 
Province should have become the personal property of 
the Massachusetts colony. Before they were purchased 
for 1250 pounds they were continually petitioning 
somebody else to come and govern them. 

Hubbard, a minister of Cambridge, in his "Gener- 
al History of New England," written in 1680 — , (a rare 
and curious narrative, and not characterized by any 
amount of fairness and impartiality) says: "But, in 
fine, the inhabitants of all these Plantations at Piscata- 
qua and in the Province of Maine, having wearied 
themselves with endless contentions and strifes, and 
having tried all conclusions of government, both by 
patent and combination, and finding neither sufficient, 
in any tolerable degree of comfortable order, to main- 
tain and support the grandeur of authority, like those 
mentioned in the Prophet, 'they took hold of the skirt 
of Massachusetts,' " 

I have stated in the last chapter that beginning with 
the time of the grant of this region to Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges as a County Pelatine, Maine was known as 
the "Province of Maine," and continued to be called 
by that title during the many years that it was subject 
to the government of Massachusetts. It is time now 
that I call attention to the very common mistake and 
misunderstanding which has obtained for many years 
and which still obtains. There is a belief quite gener- 
ally held that the name Maine is of French origin; and 
this delusion is held all the more dear by those students 
of history whose sympathies are with the claims of the 
first French settlers to the soil of Maine and who believe 
(as I do myself) that the claim of France to this terri- 
tory was sounder in international law and more just 
than was the claim of England. But, nevertheless, 



Ferdinando Gorges 159 

it is not true that this territory was named Maine in 
honor of Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I, who 
had as a dower the Province of Maine in France. In the 
first place the French princess was not possessed of the 
Province of Maine in France, for that Province belonged 
to the Crown. And in the second place, those who 
accept the explanation of the na ne as of French origin 
lose sight of the fact that great changes have taken 
place in English spelling since the first half of the seven- 
teenth century. And especially is this true in the matter 
of the final "e" on adjectives and nouns in the language. 
Many adjectives were once spelled with a final "e" 
which are not so spelled now, and vice versa. And 
the same may be said of nouns. It is in contradis- 
tinction to the al nost innumerable number of islands 
along the coast, which were much frequented long before 
the mainland was settled, or hardly visited. It is 
not easy to make the point clear. But if the reader 
should happen to devote a great deal of time to reading 
the narratives of Hakluyt and Captain John Smith, 
and Rosier, he would after a time begin to feel himself 
one of those early voyagers who cruised so much among 
the islands of the coast of Maine, always calling at 
Monhegan for water and to pick up the shipping news, 
and looking at the coast, and inland from the coast 
as "the Main." 



CHAPTER XXII 

Some Interesting Laws and Prosecutions 

One thing we can give Massachusetts credit for 
in her treatment of the people of Maine and her govern- 
ment of the Province. She did not make any attempt 
to extend her terrible witchcraft laws to this Province. 
We fortunately escaped being stained by that black 
and ugly blot. There never were any prosecutions for 
witchcraft in Maine. One Maine minister, however, 
was prosecuted for witchcraft, but not in any court 
in Maine. The Rev. George Burroughs, formerly a 
minister at Falmouth, was afterwards prosecuted at 
Salem and was found guilty of holding at arms length 
a seven-foot gun by his finger inserted in the muzzle; 
and also of carrying a barrel of molasses by the bung- 
hole. To one who recalls the fact of history that 
molasses, after it had been fermented and transformed 
into a seductive, but villianous smelling liquor called 
rum, was a favorite drink of Massachusetts men, both 
clerical and lay, in those days — the reading of the account 
of the above mentioned trial might seem significant. 
Anyway, the unfortunate minister of the gospel was 
convicted and executed. 

In addition to the credit which we must give her 
for not extending her witchcraft laws to Maine, we 
must allow her some credit for acts of positive virtue 
as well as for negative virtue. Her first act after 
taking charge of the Province of Maine was to compel 
all the coast towns to make good roads. And the 



Some Interesting Laws lei 

matter of good roads has been a bone of contention 
in Maine, between the people with progressive disposi- 
tions and those with conservative dispositions, from 
that day to this. Also, it may be a matter of interest 
to know that a prohibitory law was enacted in Maine 
in the year 1690, as follows: "In the Court of Sessions 
of the Peace for the Province of Mayne held at York, 
July 15th, 1690. Ordered, That from henceforth 
there shall not be any Rum or other strong Liquor 
or Flip sold unto any Inhabitant of the Town by any 
Ordinary keeper therein, directly or indirectly, except 
in case of great necessity." 

If witchcraft laws were not enforced by Massa- 
chusetts in Maine it may cheerfully be conceded that 
other sumptuary laws were enforced here. For in- 
stance the year 1665 all the towns from the Isles of 
Shoals to North Yarmouth were indicted "for not 
attending the court's order for making a pair of Stocks, 
Cage and Ducking-stool." It has always been a source 
of wonder to the WTiter that the penalty for violating 
the liquor prohibitory law had not been made the 
public "Stocks," or the "Cage." 

A study of the old records of the court at York leads 
one to the conclusion that the crime of "lese-majesty" 
was recognized in fact, if not by name, under the juris* 
diction of Massachusetts in Maine in those days. One 
Thomas Booth was convicted of slandering the persons 
constituting the government of the Massachusetts 
Colony by calling them a "company of Hypocritical 
Rogues, that feared neither God nor King." For this 
outrageous remark he was fined five pounds sterling. 
He very probably was telling the truth, for it seems a 
remarkable fact that the crime of "lese-majesty" is 
almost invariably committed by telling the truth 
about the powers that be. In 1670 one Thomas Taylor 



162 The Makers of Maine 

was sentenced for abusing Captain Raynes, a man 
in authority, by "theeing and thouing of him." In 
1665 Jonathan Thing was convicted of speaking "dis- 
cornfully of the Court," and saying that he did not care 
for the Governor, and he was sentenced to have twenty 
lashes on the bare back. One William Wardell when 
required to contribute to the support of Harvard College 
replied "that it was no ordinance of God's" and he 
was arrested for it. 

Although we cannot today feel any sympathy 
for such laws, yet we must admit that those men "good 
Pharisees" though they may have been, were actuated 
often by lofty motives. Compulsory education and 
compulsory contributions to the cause of education. 
Does it not seem that these founders of our New England 
civilization were prophetic and foresaw for the genera- 
tions that were to come long after their own death a 
great Republic based upon universal suffrage requiring 
universal enlightenment to maintain universal liberty 
against the encroachments of the power of wealth 
and special privilege? A Republic whose problems 
we ourselves, after many generations of have come and 
gone, have not yet worked out the half? 

Some of the judgments of that court at York we 
at this day can heartily acquiese in. For instance 
one Thomas Withers, in 1691, was convicted of "sur- 
reptitiously indeavoring to pervert the providence 
of God and privileges of others by putting in several 
Votes for himself to be an officer at a Town meeting 
when he was intrusted by divers freemen to vote for 
other men." He was fined, pilloried and disfranchised. 
If acts of corruption of the ballot were met with as 
stern justice as that now, we would hear less of social- 
ism as the panacea for all the ills of the body politic. 

Massachusetts had now obtained full control 



Some Interesting Laws 163 

of the government of the English in Maine; and we now 
come to the beginning of the Indian Wars. In J. 
Wingate Thornton's article on "Ancient Pemaquid," 
in Volume V of the Collections of the Maine Historical 
Society, we read the following, which we may accept 
as the usual statement of the English point of view: 

"But tragic and fearful events were now rapidly 
approaching : the gathering clouds hushed every thought 
but that of personal safety; at first, mere whisperings 
of danger startled the defenseless planter; the unwonted 
smiles and silence of the natives were of portentous 
meaning; but ere thought had become action, escape 
was too late, and every settlement yesterday in security 
and peace, was now laid waste by indiscriminate slaugh- 
ter; a thrill of horror, of awful fear, a faintness, swept 
over the heart of New England, as if the heathen had 
God's commission against them, robbing them of their 
children, destroying their cattle, making them few in 
number, and their highways desolate. Various were 
the causes assigned for this war, some attributed it to 
an imprudent zeal in christianizing the Indians, but 
certainly this was not true of Maine; some, to vagrant 
Jesuits, who had for years gone from Sachem to Sachem, 
to exasperate the Indian against the English, and to 
bring them into a confederacy; and that they were 
promised supplies from France and other parts to 
extirpate the English nation out of the continent of 
America. This is in harmony with all history, and 
doubly confirmed by the fact that the eastern tribes 
were always in alliance with the French who, be it 
remembered, were here solely by the will of the mer- 
cenary Stuarts, and against the will of the people. On 
their memory rests this stain of blood and crime." 

That, as I said, is the statement of the English 
view, the statement which has been taught to the des- 



164 The Makers of Maine 

cendants of those English settlers and is still taught 
in most of the public schools down to this day, as the 
truth of history. In the course of my narrative I shall 
endeavor to present the facts of the wars which followed 
without going too much into detail, that the reader 
may judge for himself, whether it is in harmony with 
all history that the Jesuits were the real instigators 
of those wars, and upon their memory rests the stain 
of blood and crime. 

Pemaquid usually called in historical writings, 
"Ancient Pemaquid," was the English fortress and 
stronghold of the debatable country east of the Kenne- 
bec, which France claimed as indisputably part and 
parcel of Acadia, and which England disputed as part 
of New England ; her claim being based upon the voyages 
and settlements which I have mentioned and discussed 
at some length in previous chapters; but in fact and in 
historical truth her claim can rest only upon the act 
of Captain Argall at St. Sauveur, that unwarranted 
and outrageous violation of international law. 

But this makes Pemaquid an important point 
as the English outpost, and its history interesting and 
instructive. Its history, its commanding position in 
the day of its youth, its unimportance except as a way- 
mark in later days to the student of history, illustrates 
the movement of empire, the strange fate which befalls 
the works and plans of man. Once it was the bulwark 
of English Protestantism in the east, the virtual, if 
not actual, capital of the Province of Maine, a military 
post and trading center second in importance only to 
Boston; now a summer resort, a fishing hamlet, known 
to but few of the general public as a part of the town 
of Bristol. Many such examples of the ebb and flow 
of the tide of empire, in a small way are to be found 
in Maine; of interest now to no one but the antiquary. 



Some Interesting Laws i66 

I will instance but one more, — I mention it because 
several times within late years its name has come into 
brief and passing prominence in the newspapers by 
reason of the fact of buried money of a coinage prior 
to 1607, when Waymouth made his voyage to the Ken- 
nebec, having been discovered there, — Richmond's 
Island, near Portland. This was in early days an 
important post. A considerable settlement with an 
English church was founded there. Ships discharged 
their cargoes and reloaded for Europe; courts were 
held there, and the settlement was the center of the 
interest of a wide territory. All this has long since 
disappeared, and today a few farm houses are all that 
remain to mark the spot of a once infant metropolis. 



CHAPTER XXII 

The First Deed From an Indian Chief and 

Herein Concerning Our Titles 

TO Our Lands 

Among the other interesting chronicles of first 
events to transpire in America, the fact deserves par- 
ticular mention that the first bill of exchange to be 
drawn in America was drawn in Maine in the year 
1623 by Abraham Shurt upon Robert A Id worth and 
Gyles Elbridge of Bristol, England, in favor of Ambrose 
Jennens of London, who was at that time owner of 
Monhegan Island, for the purchase price of the island, 
for the sum of fifty pounds sterling. This purchase 
was also the first written conveyance of real estate in 
New England. 

The word Pemaquid is a very ancient word of Indian 
origin. It is supposed to mean a promontory, land 
reaching out into the sea. The region of Pemaquid 
like the French Acadia, was of very indefinite extent, 
although never of such extent as Acadia. It seems to 
have embraced Monhegan and the neighboring islands, 
also the cluster of Damariscove Island, and the Pem- 
aquid peninsular proper. 

The name of Pemaquid will always remain an 
important one in the annals of these regions for another 
reason. Pemaquid was the home of the Indian Chief, 
or Sagamore, or Lord, Samoset, or Somerset, of school- 
boy-history fame, for that matter of a fame worthy of 
illumining the pages of more sober and unromantic 



The First Deed from an Indian Chief 167 

history. Samoset it was who greeted the Pilgrims 
at Plymouth with his, — "much welcome, Englishmen." 
Governor Bradford says that he "came boldly amongst 
them, and spoke to them in broken English, which they 
could well understand, but marvelled at it. At length 
they understood, by discourse with him, that he was 
not of these parts (Plymouth) but belonged to ye 
eastern parts, where some English ships came to fish, 
with whom he was acquainted, and could name sundrie 
of them by their names, amongst whom he had got his 
language." "He had a bow and two arrows, a leather 
about his waist, with a fringe about a span long, or little 
more." 

In the year 1625 the first deed of real estate was 
made from Indian Chiefs to an Englishman, Samoset 
and Unongoit conveyed to John Brown, as follows: 

"To all whom it may concern. Know ye, that I, 
Captain John Somerset and Unongoit, Indian Saga- 
mores, they being the proper heirs to all the lands on 
both sides of Muscongus River, have bargained and 
sold to John Brown, of New Harbour, this certain tract 
or parcel of land as followeth, that is to say, beginning 
at Pemaquid Falls and so running a direct course to 
the head of New Harbour, from thence to the South 
End of Muscongus Island, taking in the island, and so 
running five and twenty miles into the country north 
and by east, and thence eight miles northwest and by 
west, and then turning and running south and by 
west, to Pemaquid, where first begun. To all which 
lands above bounded, the said Captain John Somerset 
and Unongoit, Indian Sagamores, have granted and 
made over to the above said John Brown, of New Har- 
bour, in and for consideration of fifty skins, to us in 
hand paid, to our full satisfaction, for the above men- 
tioned lands and we the above said Indian Sagamores, 



168 The Makers of Maine 

do bind ourselves and our heirs forever, to defend the 
above said John Brown and his heirs in the quiet and 
peaceable possession of the above lands. In witness 
whereunto, I the said Captain John Somerset and 
Unongoit, have set our hands and seals this fifteenth 
day of July in the year of our Lord God, one thousand 
six hundred and twenty-five. 

His 
Captain John Somerset x 

Mark 
his 
Unongoit x (L. S. ) 
mark 
Signed and sealed in presence of us: 
Matthew Newman, 
William Cox, 

Unongoit was satisfied with a cross for signature. 
But Samoset, as proud as any Baron of the Middle 
Ages, must have a symbol more characteristic of him- 
self than the humble cross, so he traces the figure of a 
bow and arrow for signature. 

Governor Pownall, in the year 1765, wrote concern- 
ing these deeds: "The European land workers, when 
they came to settle in America, began trading with the 
Indians, and obtained leave of them to cultivate small 
tracts as settlements or dwellings. The Indians, 
having no other idea of property than what was con- 
formable to their transient, temporary dwelling-places, 
readily granted this. When they came to perceive 
the very different effect of settlements of landworkers 
creating a permanent property, always extending its 
self, they became uneasy; but yet, in the true spirit of 
justice and honor, abided by the effects of concessions 
which they had made, but which they would not have 



The First Deed from an Indian Chief i69 

made, had they understood beforehand the force of 
them." 

This opens a great question of poHtical philosophy, 
— the foundation and nature of man's right to property 
in the land, a subject which I have no intention of dis- 
cussing, had I even the temerity to attempt such an 
undertaking within the limits of an article of this nature. 
But I may say in passing, that we American people 
cannot submit to scrutiny the title by which we hold 
the land upon which we have built our towns and cities, 
our wealth and civilization ; we do not dare to examine 
our national conscience ( if I may be permitted to em- 
ploy such a figure of speech, ) else, if we did, were we not 
thick-skinned and materialistic, we would be over- 
whelmed by the consciousness of the debt of restitution 
which we never can liquidate. 

We may pass with barely a thought the fact that 
English sovereigns had no rights, founded upon the 
principles of justice and the fundamentals of interna- 
tional law, to assume to grant vast tracts of land in 
this country to their subjects. For the sovereigns did 
not receive the title to the soil by gift of God; — as 
Francis I of France said, — "he would like to see the 
clause in Adam's will which made this continent the 
exclusive possession of his brothers of Spain and Port- 
ugal." Discovery will give right in the case of an 
uninhabited land, but it will not oust the original pos- 
sessors of an inhabited land. The right by con- 
quest is applicable only in the case of a just cause 
of war; conquest in an unjust cause is criminal aggres- 
sion. And as to purchase of the Indian's land, the 
very statement of the word is to laugh, were it not for 
the shameful and pitiable memories it conjures up. 
Read again the first deed which I have copied into 
this essay, and notice the consideration paid to the two 



170 The Makers of Maine 

chiefs for this valuable and extensive tract of land, — 
fifty skins; and remember that most of the purchases 
made afterwards were for even less valuable consider- 
ations. Pretended purchases they were; and based 
upon deceit and misunderstanding. The Indian's 
conception of ownership of the land was the right to 
hunt over it. He had no objection to deeding the 
same right in his land to the Englishman, and he inno- 
cently deeded the same right in the same parcel of 
land to two, three and more Englishmen in succession, 
thus furnishing the Englishman a pretext for making 
war upon him and punishing him by taking more land 
away from him, this time by "conquest." 

The real foundation of land titles by which the 
Englishman gained possession of this country is, of 
course, the smug and self-satisfied doctrine that to 
those who can make the best use of it belongs the earth, 
the doctrine of the "white man's burden," which is 
also the argument of the "special interests," likewise 
the argument of the highway robber and the second 
story man. 

The logical results of that argument may be read 
in the pages of the early history of this country. We 
have only to contrast the record of bloodshed and burn- 
ings of the English settlers of New England with the 
peaceful progress of Champlain and the Jesuits in 
Acadia and Canada, in the forests of Maine, and on the 
waters of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, the 
armed soldiers of France, the black robed soldiers of 
the Cross, whose record is unsullied by so much as 
even one act of treachery or violence in all that vast 
extent of country and in a period of more than one 
hundred and fifty years. 

The black flag of piracy waved along the coast of 
Maine in those days. 1 do not refer to the better 



The First Deed from an Indian Chief i7i 

known pirates who sailed the high seas, infested the 
Spanish main, and sometimes, at rare intervals, ap- 
peared off the coast of Maine; but to a home product of 
piracy, of not so ambitious a description as that which 
has figured in the pages of history and fiction, but 
doubtless just as fearful to the settlers in Maine, and 
perhaps more dangerous and disastrous. 

As usually happens in a new country, enough of the 
refuse and scum of the world had drifted to New England 
to give Maine its share .One Dixy Bull had been robbed 
by a band of marauders, so he himself called about him 
a company of desperadoes and entered upon a career 
of open piracy along the coast. They captured several 
vessels at sea, and took the fort at Pemaquid. Cap- 
tain Neale at Piscataqua fitted out a little fieet of four 
pinaces and shallops and forty men to fight the pirates. 
This is the first fleet and naval demonstration fitted 
out from New England which history records. This 
gave rise to an occurrence which deserves mention 
as furnishing a striking example of the bigotry and 
intolerance of the Puritans. 

It will be remembered that the greater part 
of the English settlers in Maine were not of 
the same faith as the Massachusetts settlers. 
The latter were Puritans and Dissenters. Neale wrote 
Winthrop at Boston asking aid to suppress the pirates, 
and Winthrop was notified that the outrage had been 
perpetrated by the pirates at Richmond Island. But 
Richmond's Island was a high church plantation; so 
(says Winthrop in his journal) "the Governor thought 
best to sit still a while, partly because he heard that 
Captain Neale were gone after them, and partly because 
of the season it then being the season of frost 
and snow." This was the twenty-second day of Oc- 
tober. There must have been a great change in the 



172 The Makers of Maine 

climate of New England since Winthrop's time if 
there was enough snow and frosts in the month of Oc- 
tober to prevent an expedition setting out. 

The little love which the Puritans had for the 
Maine people may be imagined from the following 
incident. Henry Jocelyn, one of the Royal Commis- 
sioners appointed by the Crown, lived in Maine for 
several years and returned to England in 1671. He 
describes the people of Maine in these words: "Magis- 
trates, Husbandmen or Planters and fishermen; of the 
magistrates — some be royalists, the rest perversed 
spirits, the like are the planters and fishers, of which 
some be planters and fishers both, others meer fishers; 
there are but few handscraftmen, and no shopkeepers; 
English goods being kept by the Massachusetts mer- 
chants, here and there, on the coast, at a profit of one 
per cent, in exchange for fish." "They have a custom 
of taking tobacco, sleeping at noon, sitting long at 
meals sometimes four times a day, and now and then 
drinking a dram of the bottle extraordinary; the smok- 
ing of tobaccao, if moderately used, refresheth the 
weary very much, and so doth sleep." Of the fisher- 
men, he says: "To every shallop belong four fishermen, 
a Master or Steersman, a midship-man, and a Fore- 
mastman, and a shoreman who washes it out of the 
salt, and dries it upon hurdles pitcht upon stakes 
breast high and tends their cookery; these often get in 
one voyage Eight or Nine pound a man for their 
shares, but it doth some of them little good, for there 
comes in a walking tavern, a bark laden with the Legi- 
timate bloud of the rich grape, the conclusion of which 
is the costly sin of drunkenness." "Of this nature are 
people in the Dukes Province, who, not long before I left 
the country, petitioned Massachusetts to take them into 
their government ; Birds of a feather will rally together." 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Conduct of the English Towards the Indians 
AS Proven from English History 

In a previous article I have quoted from a writer 
whose view of Maine history is distorted by his anti- 
CathoHc and anti-Jesuit prejudices, — J. Wingate 
Thornton, author of "Ancient Pemaquid," (Coll. 
Me. Hist. Soc. Vol. V) quoting the exact words with 
which he introduces his narrative of the Indian wars 
fought upon the soil of Maine. He says that it is in 
harmony with all history that the cause of the war 
was the conduct of the Jesuits who had for years gone 
from Sachem to Sachem exasperating the Indians 
against the English. To show the utter inability and 
lack of capacity of such writers to view history in the 
light of reason and fairness, it is only necessary to say 
that in the very next breath he unwittingly admits 
the falseness of his premises. For in the next para- 
graph he says: "Henry Sawyer of York sent the first 
news of the Indian troubles about Plymouth, to the 
Kennebec, on the eleventh of July 1675. In the spring 
of 1676, one Laugh ton from Piscataqua, or that vicin- 
ity, enticed some Indians about Cape Sable aboard 
his vessel and sold them into slavery." 

Also, we find Mr. Thornton saying: "The sum- 
mer of 1694 was a bloody time. On the approach of. 
winter, Bomazeen, the Chief of the Norridgwocks, 
who had signed the treaty the year before, and was 
the ring leader in the brutalities and murders perpetrated 



174 The Makers of Maine 

upon the English, appeared beneath the walls of Pema- 
quid, with a flag of truce, pretending he and his com- 
panions were just arrived from Canada, acknowledg- 
ing their crimes, and promising better for the future. 
The following account was from one present at the 
interview. November 19th (1694) Bomazeen, with 
ten or a dozen men called over the barbican, desiring 
to speak with Captain March, and set up a flag, by 
which they did implicitely own themselves enemies 
and breakers of the peace. We did not put out ours 
until an hour or two after theirs; would have persuaded 
them there was no reason for it; minding them of the 
late argreement at Pemaquid: but they called earnestly 
for it. 

"We resolved to seize Bomazeen at any rate, except 
positive violation of promise. We made no other 
promise before he came over but that we would be 
glad of his company, would treat him kindly, and do 
him no hurt. After he was seized, we told him the 
same and observed it punctually, so long as he stayed 
here; but withal told him we must know who did the 
mischief at Oyster River and Groton, etc., of which 
they made themselves ignorant; why the peace was so 
soon broken and by whom ; that they must go to Boston 
and abide there till Sheepscote John was sent to fetch 
in the other Sagamores, and then they would come 
again with some of the English to treat, etc. We 
thought it not unlawful nor culpable to apprehend 
such perfideous villians and traitors (though under a 
white rag) that have so often falsified their promise 
to the English, viz: at Cocheco, at Casco Fort, at 
Oyster River and other places; that make no con- 
science of breaking the peace whenever it serves their 
turn, although never so solemnly confirmed with sub- 
scriptions and oaths. They have no regard to the 



Conduct of English Towards Indians 175 

law of nations and therefore deserve no human respect. 
Besides, we are credibly informed, they came with a 
certain design to destroy their Majesties' fort, here, 
under pretense of trade, friendship, etc., and so they 
are fallen into a pit of their own digging. Neither 
did we aim at anything more than their detainment as 
prisoners, supposing some advantage might occur to 
the poor captives, if not to the country thereby. 

If your honors judge it not fairly done, they are 
now in your hands to dispose of and deal with them as 
may be for their Majesties honors, and as the circum- 
stances of the case require." 

Evidently, "their honors" judged it fairly done, 
even though it was done under a "white rag," for they 
kept the Indian in a vile and unhealthy prison at Boston 
for a long time. 

In addition to the acts of treachery of the English 
and their numerous violations of the laws of civilized 
warfare, it must be admitted that they gave frequent 
exhibitions of disgraceful cowardice. July 14th, 1694. 
the French under Iberville laid siege to Pemaquid. 
The fort at Pemaquid was commanded by a Captain 
Chubb. The following is the account of the surrender. 
(Hutchinson's Mass. II. 88-90.) 

"Captain March, who was a good officer, had re- 
signed the command of the fort a few months before, 
and was succeeded by a very different man. Captain 
Chubb. Iberville, upon his arrival, sent a summons 
to surrender. Chubb returned a vain, foolish answer, 
'that if the sea was covered with French vessels and 
the land with Indians, yet he would not give up the 
fort.' The Indians thereupon began their fire, and 
return was made by the musketry and with a few can- 
nons from the fort. This brought the first day to a 
close. In the night, Iberville landed his cannon and 



176 The Makers of Maine 

mortars; and the next day, before three in the after- 
noon, he had raised his batteries, and thrown five 
bombs into the fort, to the great terror of Chubb and 
his garrison. Castine, about this time, found some 
way of conveying a letter into the fort, and let them 
know, that, if they delayed surrendering until the as- 
sault was made, they would have to do with the savages, 
and must expect no quarter, for he had seen the King's 
order to Iberville to give none. This did the business; 
the chamade was beat immediately, and the fort was 
surrendered, upon the terms offered by the French, 
that the garrison should be sent to Boston, and ex- 
changed for the like number of French and Indian pris- 
oners; only, a special security or engagement was in- 
sisted upon from the French commander, that their 
persons should be protected against the rage of the 
Indians." 

"Chubb's conduct was universally censured, and 
at first he was put under arrest, but came off without 
any punishment other than being laid aside. The 
fort had fifteen cannon mounted, and ninety able men 
to manage them, no want of ammunition or stores. 
The French supposed that if there had been a brave 
defense, the event would have been doubtful; at least, 
that the fort could not have been carried without a 
great loss of men; and attributed the surrender to the 
cowardice of the garrison, who compelled the com- 
mander to act contrary to his own inclination." 

The same writer says: "The reason of the garri- 
son's requiring extraordinary caution against the rage 
of the Indians, was this: They were conscious of their 
own cruelty and barbarity, and feared revenge, and a 
security from it might probably hasten the surrender, 
lest it should afterwards not be in their power to obtain 
it. In the month of February before, Egremet, a 



Conduct of the English the Indians 177 

chief of the Machias Indians, came to the fort, to treat 
upon the exchange of prisoners. Chubb with some of 
his garrison fell upon the Indians in the midst of the 
treaty, when they thought themselves most secure, 
murdered Egremet and Abenquid with two others. 
Toxus and some others escaped, and some remained 
prisoners; one Indian was found in the fort in irons 
when the French took possession of it." 

The reader is reminded that the foregoing quo- 
tations are from non-Catholic sources, not from Cath- 
olic, and not only from non-Catholic, but in most cases 
from the strongest anti-Catholic, anti-Jesuit, and anti- 
French writers. I have not yet begun to give the 
French and Catholic side of the story. 

Surely, the fair minded reader of history must be 
satisfied that it is the truth, that if the Indians did, as 
in fact they did, commit outrages upon the English in 
Maine — they were goaded to the doing of it by the in- 
human treatment of the English. It is almost incon- 
ceivable at this day, and it would be unbelievable if 
we did not have it on the authority of the partizans of 
the English Protestant cause, that Englishmen, calling 
themselves Christians, could have committed such acts 
of wanton cruelty and barbarity upon the Indians. 

The French, after the capture of the fort of Pema- 
quid, demolished it, and returned to the Penobscot 
River. This was the close of the first period of the 
history of Pemaquid. Pemaquid was desolate, its 
inhabitants dead or scattered. 

English historians have often related the story of 
the massacre of the English garrison at Fort Loyal, 
now Portland, by the Indian allies of the French in 
June 1690. It has always been employed as a clear 
and unanswerable proof that the French were demons 
of cruelty. But two facts should be remembered in 



178 The Makers of Maine 

this case — first the French were not able to restrain 
the Indians, and second, the Indians themselves were 
only avenging similar massacres perpetrated by those 
other Indians who were English allies. The history 
of the Fort Loyal affairs deserves some consideration. 

The administration of Canada, under the Govern- 
ors, La Barre and de Denouville, was lax for the times, 
and the fierce Iroquois lost respect for the military 
prowess of the French. Consequently, on the night 
of August 4, 1689, during a wild storm, 1500 Iroquois 
landed from their canoes on the shores of Lac St. Louis, 
and without warning fell upon the village of La Chine, 
murdering the inhabitants in their beds, before the 
poor wretches had even an opportunity to realize what 
had happened. 

When the news of this outrage reached Louis XIV, 
he aroused himself enough to send Louis de Frontenac, 
one of the greatest soldiers of the time, and one of the 
greatest governors of Canada, to Quebec to serve 
again as governor. As war had again been declared 
between France and England, King Louis gave Fron- 
tenac the order to exterminate the whole English sea- 
board, but, as men and arms were sorely needed in 
Europe, Louis neglected to provide Frontenac with 
the means for accomplishing this ambitious order. 

Although Frontenac had not at his command the 
necessary troops to carry war in good earnest into the 
English colonies, he had enough French, and their 
Indian allies, with his own indomitable courage, 
resourcefulness and military spirit to strike terror into 
the hearts of the Iroquios, and to teach them not to 
repeat the La Chine massacre elsewhere. In the winter 
of 1689 he organized three expeditions, and sent them 
one to Schenectady,5-N. Y., one to Salmon Falls on the 
Piscataqua, and the third to Fort Loyal, now Portland. 



Conduct of English Toward Indians 179 

It was early in June that the French and Hurons 
attacked the Casco Bay settlement. The EngHsh had 
a garrison here, and it required six days of siege before 
they surrendered. They were promised protection 
by the French commander, and it should be said to his 
credit and in his defense, that he certainly tried to make 
good his promise, but he could as easily stem the tide, 
or stay the storm-king, as restrain the wild and blood- 
thirsty Indians. The usual massacre occurred. But, 
as we said before, it might almost be called the fashion 
of the times. And certainly, if the La Chine massa- 
cre had not happened, history- would not have to 
record the Fort Loyal Massacre. 

Unfortunately most writers of history of this period 
forget, or neglect, this sequence of events. 

By the treaty of Ryswick, September 10th, 1697, 
Acadia, whose career was that of a pendulum swinging 
back and forth between England and France, was 
ceded to France. The English fishermen and traders 
were driven from the coast of Maine, the French were 
firmly established as far west as the Kennebec, and 
Catholic priests were teaching and preaching among 
the Abenaqui Indians. 

It may interest the reader to know that among 
the numerous historic remains (I can hardly say ruins) 
of those old days of romantic history in Maine, the 
outlines of the old fort at Pemaquid, and the rock 
which formed the bomb-proof of the magazine, may 
still be discerned at this place on the coast. 



CHAPTER XXV 

ENGLAND'S Title to Maine Obtained by 

Treachery and Maintained 

BY Violence 

In the last chapter I quoted from Thornton's 
"Ancient Pemaquid". Now, let us call the greatest 
authority of all as a witness, — Williamson: Writing 
of the beginning of the Indian wars, the war commonly 
called in English writings, "King PhiUip's War," he 
says: (Volume 1, page 517) "This war has been 
ascribed to various causes. It has been represented 
with some spleen as well as truth, that the English 
were the aggressors. The generous treatment and 
welcome they first received from the natives had been 
repaid, as accusers say, by kidnapping their benefac- 
tors, by disturbing their hunting grounds and fisheries, 
and by 'a shameful mismanagement of the fur and 
peltry trade.' In the gradual encroachments of the 
white people, the Indians foresaw the danger of being 
totally exiled from their native country. They com- 
plained of imposition — for instance an Anasagunticook 
said, 'he had probably given 100 pounds sterling for 
water drawn out of Purchas' well.' To nothing Euro- 
pean were the natives more passionately attached than 
the hunting gun; as it afforded them the necessary 
means of procuring a sustenance. Still, they said, 
'The English refused to sell them firearms and ammu- 
nition, though they were at times ready to starve and 
perish; whereas the French were free and cheerful to 



ENGLAND'S Title i8i 

supply them with whatever they wished.' Nay, the 
Sagamores knew the EngHsh looked upon them and 
their tribes with a distrustful eye, and considered them 
as an inferior order of being; while they themselves 
believed, the Great Spirit, who gave them existence, 
had also given them absolute rights in the country of 
their birth, and the land of their fathers. Many tra- 
ditional stories of injuries they had received were col- 
lected, (for Indians never forget) and often rehearsed 
in a manner calculated to arouse and influence their 
resentments." 

Also, on page 519, he says: "But the far-famed 
Squando, who had cherished a bitter antipathy against 
the English, had recently been affronted in a manner 
which greatly provoked his resentment. As his squaw 
was passing along the river Saco in a canoe, with her 
infant child, she was accosted by several rude sailors 
who having heard that the Indian children could swim 
as naturally as the young of irrational animals, ap- 
proached her, and in a fit of inconsiderate humor, over- 
set the canoe to try the experiment. The child sank, 
and though the mother, diving, brought it up alive, 
it soon after died, and the parents imputed its death to 
the ill-treatment received. So highly did this exas- 
perate Squando, that he resolved to use all his arts and 
influence to arouse and inflame the Indians against 
the settlers." 

Let the reader, who is a Christian, and whose 
conduct and mode of life and mental attitude have 
been determined by the influence of generations of 
Christian civilization, consider what he would do if 
some foreigners should submit his wife and children 
to such treatment as that which Williamson relates 
in the above quoted passage. 

It is deserving of especial notice that the historian 



182 The Makers of Maine 

says that the English did not dare to supply the natives 
with firearms, but he admits that the French could do 
so with perfect safety to themselves. In studying 
all the writings of all the historians who have treated 
this period of our history, the student will be impressed 
by the fact that the writers cannot give a satisfactory 
reason for the hostility of the natives towards the 
English. And also, although they deal in glittering 
generalities to the effect that the French were in some 
way responsible for that hostility, make general sweep- 
ing statements about the unreliability of the "Romish" 
French and the "dishonesty" of the Jesuit priests, 
they never produce one concrete example to sustain 
their sweeping charges. And, to the contrary, these 
writers themselves frequently mention instances of the 
English violating promises and breaking treaties and 
committing acts of hostility in time of peace. An 
instance of the latter occurs to me now. In the year 
1654, twenty years after the Peace of St. Germain, 
by which Acadia had been ceded to the French by 
England, the English fitted out an expedition against 
the Dutch and secret instructions were given to the 
captains of the ship that when they had reduced the 
Dutch colony, they should turn their arms against 
Acadia and make conquest of it. The French were 
taken by surprise, as this was a time of peace, and the 
English met with no resistance at the Penobscot nor at 
the river St. John. La Tour was in command at the 
St. John. In a few weeks the whole province of Acadia 
was reduced to subjection by the English. The French 
protested to the English cabinet and complained of this 
as an unprovoked outrage, but to no avail. Several 
other instances could be cited; but I think I have already 
in this, and the preceding chapters, sufficiently proved 
my contention, — that a view of all the early history 



ENGLAND'S Titles 183 

of Maine shows that the English possession was ob- 
tained by violence and a breach of faith in the first 
instance, and was maintained by repeated acts of 
violence and treachery towards both the French and the 
Indians afterwards. 

I do not at all mean to argue that the Indian allies 
of the French, were not guilty of acts of cruelty and 
treachery during the wars. After the fighting was well 
begun, there is little choice between the two sides. 
History contains no more horrible tale than the mas- 
sacre which followed the surrender of Fort Loyal at 
Falmouth. On the other hand, in the same year 
Major Benjamin Church commanded an expedition 
of the English which attacked a party of Indians at a 
fort on the western side of the Lower Falls of the An- 
droscoggin (where the town of Brunswick now stands). 
The Indian warriors made their escape and Major 
Church captured several squaws and a great number 
of Indian children. Their fates are related in these 
words of Williamson, (Volume 1, page 625,) "But 
it is painful to relate, and nowise creditable to the 
usual humanity of Major Church, that the rest of the 
females, except two or three old squaws, also the un- 
offending children, were put to the tomahawk or sword." 
Many others of such instances can be cited from 
Williamson himself. But now, let us consider again the 
frequent repetition of the charges by Williamson and 
the other writers of this period of history, that the Jesuits 
were the instigators of the outrages committed by the 
Indians. Williamson says, (Volume 1. page 639) 
"Fit instruments to effect this purpose were the French 
missionaries. The four or five who were prominent 
in this service, were M. Thury, Vincent and Jacques 
Bigot, and Sebastin Ralle,— all of whom were ardent 
and bold enthusiasts, always ready with tearful eye, 



184 THE Makers of Maine 

to preach from a text in their creed,— that 'it is no sin 
to break faith with heretics.' " Such passages occur 
frequently in the writings of these historians. But 
the reader will notice that however carefully he may 
search for proof to sustain the charges, for even one well 
authentic instance, no proof is forthcoming. From 
cover to cover of the books of these historians, not one 
instance of such acts as are charged against the Jesuits 
is produced to sustain the charge. The closest that 
Williamson comes to proving his charge is the following 
from page 641 of Volume 1. Bomazeen, the Sagamore, 
had been captured when on a visit to Pemaquid, and 
was taken to Boston, as I have related. The following 
conversation is quoted: "In conversation with a 
clergyman of Boston, Bomazeen said, 'the Indians 
understand the Virgin Mary was a French lady, and 
her son, Jesus Christ, the blessed, was murdered by the 
English; but has since risen and gone to heaven, and all 
who would gain his pleasure must avenge his blood.'" 
Now, admitting that the Indian said that,^ it must 
be remembered that he was a prisoner and in danger 
of his life, and it is not at all surprising that he would 
craftily say things calculated to please his hearers 
and to deceive them into thinking that he was ready 
to renounce allegiance to France and to the Catholic 
Church, both of which he knew were cordially hated 
by the English Puritans of Boston. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

An Eloquent Indian Chief 

It is practically impossible, in thje limits of a work 
of this nature, to treat at any length the history of the 
Indian wars. To do so would be to write a history 
of Maine, a purpose which I have, as my readers re- 
member, expressly disclaimed. No other State of the 
present American Union has such a history of fighting 
and wars as Maine. Williamson, the historian of 
Maine, whose exhaustive history I have frequently 
quoted, discussed and criticized (I hope fairly), in be- 
ginning his relation of the fourth Indian war, begun 
in 1722 (Volume II, Chapter IV.) discusses the situa- 
tion and the condition of the Indians at that time, and 
relates a part of the conversation had between the 
English officers and the Indian chiefs. I desire to 
quote his relation of that conversation, because, among 
other reasons, it demonstrates a fact which I have 
more than once in these chapters mentioned, that is, 
the strange obsession of a learned and scholarly writer 
by the evil genius of religious bigotry, which leads 
him to blindly ignore inevitable deductions from ad- 
mitted facts. 

He says that the Indians in their frequent negotia- 
tions and individual parleys and conversations with 
the English were frank to open their hearts. These 
were his words: "But why, one inquired of them, 
are you so strongly attached to the French from whom 
you can never receive so much benefit as from the Eng- 



186 The Makers of Maine 

Ush? A sachem gravely answered, 'Because the French 
have taught us to pray unto God, which Englishmen 
never did.' A summary of thoughts and expressions 
dropped by the Indians at different times will show 
their views. — 'Frenchmen speak and act in our behalf. 
They feed us with good things we need, and they make 
us presents. They never take away our lands. No, 
but their kind missionaries come and tell us how to 
pray, and how to worship the Great Spirit. When 
the day is darkened by clouds, our French brothers 
give us council. In trade with them, we have good 
articles, full weight and free measure. Indians and 
white men have one Great Father. He has given 
every tribe of us a goodly river, which yields us fine 
salmon and other fish. Their borders are wide and 
pleasant. Here the Indians from oldest times have 
hunted the bear, the moose, the beaver. It is our 
own country, where our fathers died, where ourselves 
and our children were born; we can never leave it. 
The Indian has rights and loves good things as well as the 
Englishman. Yes, we have a sense too of what is kind 
and great. When you first came from the morning 
waters, we took you into our open arms; we thought 
you children of the sun; we fed you with our best meat; 
never went a white man cold and star\ang from the cabin 
of an Indian. Do we speak the truth? But you have 
returned us evil for good. You put the flaming cup 
to our lips; it filled our veins with poison; it wasted the 
pride of our strength. Aye, and when the fit was on, 
you took advantage, you made gains of us. You made 
our beaver cheap; then you paid us in watered rum 
and trifles. We shed your blood; we avenged your 
affronts. Then you promised us equal trade, and good 
commodities. Have Christian Englishmen lived up 
to their promises? Never, for they asked leave of our 



An Eloquent Indian Chief i87 

fathers to dwell in the land as brothers. It was freely 
granted. The earth is for the life and range of man. 
We are now told the country spreading far from the sea 
is passed away to you forever, perhaps for nothing, 
because of the names and seals of our Sagamores. Such 
deeds be far from them. They never turned their chil- 
dren from their homes to suffer. Their hearts were 
too full of love and kindness, their souls too great. 
Whither should we go? There is no land so much our 
own, none half so dear to us. Why flee before our 
destroyers? We fear them not, sooner far we'll sing 
the war song, and again light up the council fires; so 
shall the great spirits of our fathers own their sons. 
To take our lands from us, the English lawmakers and 
rulers themselves, as some folks tell us, have long ago 
forbidden you. All the forts and mills built again 
are contrary to treaty and must be laid low. The 
white men shall give more place to Indians, so shall 
the lines and extent we require to see established be 
where we please to have them." 

In reading the foregoing, one cannot but be im- 
pressed by the eloquence of the speaker, as well as the 
sound sense and justice of the sentiments expressed. 
We find Williamson admitting that no matter how 
hard pressed the Indians were, however reduced by 
famine and the loss of warriors, when they met the 
English to draft a treaty of peace, they would sacrifice 
every hope of peace rather than give up their mission- 
aries. As is well known to all readers of the history 
of this period, the English conceived a bitter hatred 
towards the missionary priests; and to justify that 
hatred, they pretended to believe that the Indians 
would live in peace and quiet were it not for the evil 
machinations of the Jesuit priests. 

After the peace of Ryswick, September 11th, 1693, 



188 The Makers of Maine 

between France and England, the English met the 
Indians at Mare Point, now a part of Brunswick, to 
draw up a treaty. The English wanted to stipulate 
that the French missionaries at Norridgewock, and 
at the Penobscot and the Androscoggin should be with- 
drawn. The Indians consented to exchange prisoners, 
and agreed to all else, but they would not consent to 
lose their missionaries. 

I have found considerable pleasure in pointing 
out many curious features of the history of these times 
about which I am writing, and in calling attention to 
some facts which are not generally known and to other 
facts which have been generally misunderstood for 
generations. It may be of interest to know the reason 
why the publication of the Laws of Maine is to this 
day called the "Acts and Resolves." There is now no 
reason for the title, "Resolves." But the history of 
the word thus used is curious. The Charter of William 
and Mary of October 7th, 1691, for the government of 
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, provided for a General 
Court, which should be an elective legislative body. 
This General Court was given full power to enact orders, 
laws, statutes and ordinances, but all such were to be 
transmitted to the king for his approval under the 
royal signature by the first opportunity. If, however, 
any one of them were not expressly disallowed by him 
in privy council within three years, it had, after that 
period, the full force and effect of law the same as 
if it bore the royal signature. This was manifestly 
inconvenient. But at least it had some beneficial 
results, for great pains were taken to render the enacted 
bills perfect, also it was a salutary check upon the 
tendency of the legislative body to enact a needless 
multiplication of statutes, — that bane of modern legis- 
lation. However, to avoid transmitting every minor 



An Eloquent Indian Chief i89 

legislative measure across the ocean the General Court 
often acted by "Resolves." This was found to be a 
convenient way of "side-stepping" the letter of the 
Charter, and the practice grew. The reason for the 
name "Resolve" no longer exists, but to this day the 
laws of Maine and of some other States are entitled the 
"Acts and Resolves." 



CHAPTER XXVII 

The Civil War Between De La Tour 

AND AULNAY CHARNISAY 

Let us turn back the pages of history again, and 
take up the story of the first French settlers in Acadia 
that we may consider the strange civil war which raged 
in Acadia between two French Lords of the New World. 

When Biencourt, the son of de Poutrincourt, be- 
came a wanderer in the wilderness, after the breaking 
up of the Port Royal settlement under de Poutrincourt, 
his companion was Charles de la Tour. They joined 
themselves to the bands of roving Indians, lived their 
life, and became so identified with them that they 
were almost Indians themselves. 

Biencourt died in 1622, and de la Tour succeeded 
to his claims to lordship in Acadia. 

But now, let us return, for the moment to the 
English claim to Acadia. King James I, in 1621 granted 
to Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, 
the English claim to Acadia. At the request of James' 
successor, — King Charles, Sir William fitted out an 
expedition for the purpose of enforcing the English 
claim, and placed in charge a certain David Kirk, a 
French Huguenot who had renounced his allegiance 
to France and become an English subject. Kirk cap- 
tured some French ships, and among his prisoners was 
Claude de la Tour, the father of Charles de la Tour. 
Although we know that Charles, the son, was a Cath- 
olic, at least in name; his father, Claude, was a Hugiie- 



De La Tour and Aulnay Charnisay 191 

not. As some excuse for the conduct of Claude, it 
should be said that at that time ^rehgious ties were 
often stronger than the ties of country. Claude de la 
Tour was received in such a flattering manner in Eng- 
land that his loyalty to his native country was over- 
come, and he agreed to join hands with the English in 
the endeavor to wrest Acadia from France, or, as he 
put it, — "to save Acadia from the Jesuits." But 
Claude went a step too far, — he pledged the co-opera- 
tion of his son, Charles. 

Under the patronage of Sir William Alexander, 
he sailed for Acadia at the head of an expedition. When 
he arrived, he interviewed his son; and to his surprise 
and chagrin Charles refused to surrender his allegiance 
to France at the bidding of his father. The father 
urged and argued; but to no effect. He threatened 
war; but Charles answered that he would fight for 
France against his own father. He even went so far 
as to land troops and march against the fort; but 
Charles defended with so much vigor that the English 
retired. 

Claude found himself in a quandary. He could 
not return to England and admit that all his plans had 
miscarried through the obstinancy of his son in clinging 
to his honorable allegiance to France; and he could not 
remain in Acadia except by sufferance of his son. Fi- 
nally he chose the latter course, and was allowed to live 
in Acadia, in a certain style of independence. 

The French government rewarded Charles de 
la Tour by appointing him Lieutenant Governor of 
Acadia and its dependencies. Although, as I have 
intimated, he was no more than a nominal Catholic, 
we find him acting as patron and protector of the Re- 
collect Fathers who maintained a mission on the Pen- 
obscot for several years. I think it can fairly be pre- 



192 The Makers of Maine 

sumed that his reason for this act of protectorship of 
the Recollect missionaries was because his great rival 
and enemy, D'Aulnay Charnisay, was the patron of 
the Capuchin Fathers who had mission stations on the 
Kennebec and Penobscot, as we shall a little farther 
on relate. 

It should be noted in passing, that many histo- 
rians, including Williamson, have frequently confused 
the father and son de la Tour, especially in regard to 
the missions. 

The strange and romantic civil war which Charles 
de la Tour and d'Aulnay Charnisay carried on against 
each other for the possession and lordship of Acadia 
makes a most interesting chapter in our history. It 
is at some times almost comic; but at all times tragic. 
The amusing part of it is the effort which both made 
to enlist the Massachusetts English in the service of 
one or the other. The tragic part of it is the suffering 
of the noble lady who was the wife of de la Tour, and 
who at times was forced to bear the brunt of the contest 
on her own weak shoulders. One result of the war was 
that many French settlements along the coast of Maine, 
and on the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, were 
broken up, and another was, without doubt, that the 
missionary work of the Recollet and Capuchin Fathers 
was interfered with and greatly injured. 

De La Tour's fort was on the St. John River, 
opposite what is now Navy Island; it commanded the 
river and harbor. Here Charles lived in state as a 
feudal lord and baron, with his wife, his retainers, and 
servants. A lonely life this noble lady must have 
lived, with no equals and no society worth mingling 
with. Her only associates were her children and the 
servants and Indians, for her noble lord was away 
ranging the woods and hills most of his days. 



De La Tour and Aulnay Charnisay 193 

Of these two rivals and enemies, Charnisay was 
by all odds the shrewder. Early in their troubles 
he made haste to go to France and secure influence at 
court ; while de la Tour remained in Acadia attending 
to the government of his territories and the carrying 
on of his fur trades and fishing industries. Charnisay 
secured an order from the King requiring de la Tour 
to return to France and make answer to the charges 
and claims which he had preferred against him. The 
King further authoiized Charnisay to arrest de la Tour 
and bring him to France if he failed to come of his 
own accord. This was an order more easily made 
than executed. As a result of this order the fighting 
began. De la Tour strengthened his fort and his de- 
fenses, and bade defiance to Charnisay and the King's 
order. In this act he, of course, made himself an 
outlaw. From this point on Charnisay had him at 
a disadvantage in law; but Charnisay 's own methods 
will hardly bear scrutiny either. Charnisay dared 
not attack the fort at this time with any hope of carry- 
it. He returned to France to obtain assistance to 
overpower his rival. 

Now we come to the strange, almost ludicrous 
efforts of each side to enlist the English of Massachu- 
setts in the struggle. De la Tour turned his eyes to Bos- 
ton. He sent a messenger to Boston to treat with 
the English, and with many hints of a community of 
religious interests he proposed an alliance of offense 
and defense. The canny Englishmen of Boston held 
back and returned fair words only. De la Tour per- 
sisted and sent messenger after messenger. Then 
Charnisay put his own hand into this game of politics 
and himself sent a messenger to Governor Winthrop 
at Boston with the word that de la Tour was a rebel 
against his King, an outlaw under the laws of all nations. 



194 The Makers of Maine 

At the same time he obtained help in France, securing 
five vessels and five hundred men. Now, de la Tour 
began to realize the need of help from France, and he 
in his turn appealed to his family's Huguenot friends 
at Rochelle, giving them to understand that this was 
a religious war. He could not have made a shrewder 
move, for the cry of religious persecution was all that 
was needed to arouse the Huguenots of Rochelle. They 
in their turn fitted out an armed vessel with one hundred 
and forty men, and sent them to Acadia to fight in this 
holy war of religion. 

This ship arrived off Fort La Tour to find the 
place blockaded by Charnisay's ships. La Tour and 
his wife slipped out of the fort, under cover of darkness 
one night, got aboard a ship of their friends, and sailed 
for Boston. He had decided to apply in person to 
the English for help. After a long conference with 
Governor Winthrop, and his Councilors, it was finally 
decided by the English Colonists to permit de la Tour 
to hire men and vessels in Boston. La Tour chartered 
four vessels, fifty-two men, and ninety-two soldiers. 
This partial siding of Boston men with La Tour against 
Charnisay aroused great opposition, and protests from 
many parts of New England, especially from the Eng- 
lish in Piscataqua; and Endicott, afterwards Governor 
of the colony, Avrote from Salem to the Governor, ex- 
pressing his fears at having anything to do with "these 
idolatrous French." 

Charnisay did not know what was going on in 
Boston, and was surprised when La Tour's fleet of five 
ships arrived off St. John. He did not wait to give 
battle, but fled to Port Royal. One circumstance 
is sufficient to show the bitter enmity which existed 
between these two men. About this time Charnisay 
went back to France, and found that the Lady de la 



De La Tour and Aulnay Charnisay los 

Tour was in France in the interest of obtaining aid 
for her husband. Instead of regarding her as a devoted 
wife of an honorable enemy, he procured an order for 
her arrest on the ground that she was equally, with her 
husband, a traitor to the King. She escaped to Eng- 
land. De la Tour, after making repeated entreaties 
for aid from the English of Boston, found that he could 
expect nothing from that quarter. After many hard- 
ships, and much wandering, the Lady de La Tour 
arrived safely at the fort on the St. John. 

At one time, in the absence of Charles, she defended 
the fort herself, as commander, against an attack by 
Charnisay, but finally, on the 12th of April, 1645, Charn- 
isay succeeded in capturing the fort. After a brilliant 
resistance, the Lady de La Tour, who was still alone, 
and the commandant in the absence of her husband, 
to save the lives of her few followers capitulated to 
Charnisay. Once Charnisay took possession, he broke 
his word, and caused the whole garrison to be hanged. 
Doubtless, also, he desired to murder Lady de La Tour, 
but dared not. But he did almost as much. He 
compelled her to be present at the execution of her 
soldiers, with a rope around her neck, like one who 
was about to be executed. The shock of all these ter- 
rible events was too much for this poor woman, and she 
shortly afterwards died. 

The names of two great French women stand out 
as brilliant stars among the galaxy of heroic souls, who 
lived and took their part in the making of this land 
in those early days. Those two women, the greatest 
of all the women whose names and fortunes were com- 
mingled with those of the men who helped in the building 
of this country are Madame de Guercheville, who gave 
her private fortune for the founding of a French colony 



136 THE Makers of Maine 

in Acadia, and Madame de la Tour, who gave her life 
to the defending of a French colony in Acadia. 

It is not necessary to give further minute details 
of the remainder of the lives of La Tour and Charnisay. 
La Tour afterwards went to Quebec and New Found- 
land, and was absent from Acadia for four years. Dur- 
ing that period Charnisay was certainly in the ascen- 
dancy in Acadia. 

In 1650, however, he met his death by drowning 
in the river of Port Royal. Such was the end of one 
of the most bitter, cruel and relentless men who had 
a hand in the making of history of this period. 

De La Tour took advantage of Charnisay's death 
to regain the ascendancy in Acadia, and in 1653 he 
married the widow of Charnisay. And, so, those two 
families, after years of bitter conflict, were united. 
Afterwards the English took fort La Tour. Charles 
de La Tour died in the year 1666, at the age of seventy- 
two. He was buried in his beloved Acadia. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

The Interesting but Little Known History 
OF THE Capuchin Missions in Maine 

In the course of the narrative of the life of de la 
Tour, I mentioned the Capuchin Missionaries on the 
Kennebec and Penobscot. As de la Tour, in a manner, 
patronized the Recollect Fathers, so his great rival 
Charnisay was the patron of the Capuchins, While 
there may be some question of the Catholicity of La 
Tour, there can be no doubt but that Charnisay was 
truly devoted to the interests of the Church, and anxious 
that the Catholic missions should prosper. 

Let us relate what is known about the Capuchin 
missionaries in Maine, those Frenchmen, educated, 
refined and self sacrificing who gave up their homes in 
Paris to live in the wilderness of the Maine woods, 
and whom we find, in the year 1648, conducting a mis- 
sion for the Indians on the Penobscot and Kennebec, 
and building the little church of Our Lady of Holy 
Hope at Castine. 

When our Civil War was raging, the United States 
government, in the year 1863, erected a battery near 
the harbor of Castine, on the site of an old brick battery 
which was formerly known as the Lower Fort. Mr. 
W. H. Weeks was engaged in work on the road leading 
to the battery. While at work, he found near the fort, 
and only a little below the surface of the ground, a piece 
of old sheet copper. He thought nothing of it at the 
time, and cut off a piece to repair his boat. Afterwards, 



198 THE Makers of Maine 

however, he discovered some letter, and made out 
an inscription, which, later, by the help of archaeolog- 
ists, was rendered as follows: 

1648. 8 IVN, F 

LEO. PARISIN. 

CAPUC. MISS 

POSVI HOC FV- 

NDTM IN HNR- 

EM NRAE 

SANC TAE SPEI 
which translated, reads in English as follows: 

1648. June, 8 I Friar 

Leo of Paris 

Capuchin, Missionary, 

laid this found- 
ation in honor 

of Our Lady 

of Holy Hope. 
This copper plate was, without doubt, placed by 
Father Leo of Paris, at the time the Superior of the 
Capuchin missionaries, in the receptacle sealed in the 
corner stone of the chapel of Our Lady of Holy Hope 
built by these Fathers at Castine. 

The names of the other Capuchin Fathers who were 
superiors of the mission are,— Father Arsenius of Paris, 
Father Angelus of Luynes, Father Ignatius of Paris, 
and Father Cosmas de Mantes. 

The Rev. Father Charlevoix could have given us 
more information concerning these Capuchin mis- 
sionaries and their work in Maine when writing his 
History of New France. The full correspondence 
between the Jesuit Father Druillettes and the Capu- 
chin Fathers was preserved in the Archives of the 
college at Quebec, and Father Charlevoix must have 



The Capuchin Missions 199 

had access to this correspondence. But he did not 
publish the correspondence; and it was afterwards lost, 
together with many other priceless manuscripts, when 
Quebec was taken by the English. .The Capuchins 
themselves did not keep a daily record of their doings, 
as the Jesuits did. Consequently, we have no Capu- 
chin Relations to refer to. 

The Capuchin order was instituted in Europe 
about the year 1528. They were offered a mission in 
Canada in 1632, but declined it at that time, and the 
Jesuits took their place. Ten years afterwards, Char- 
nisay, the great rival and enemy of de La Tour, invited 
them to take charge of the religious affairs of that part 
of Acadia over which he claimed jurisdiction. They 
came and began their work in the year 1643. 

In the Jesuit Relations, we read, concerning Father 
Druilettes' journey from Quebec to Maine in 1646: 
"His Indian guide, seeing himself on the banks of the 
sea of Acadia, conducted the Father in a little bark 
canoe to Pentagoet, where he found a little hospice of 
Capuchin Fathers who embraced him with the love 
and charity which was to be expected from their good- 
ness. Their superior, Father Ignatius of Paris, gave 
them every possible welcome. After recruiting some- 
time with these good fathers he re-embarked in his 
canoe." 

The Capuchins, besides being missionraies to the 
Indians, were chaplains to the French settlers, traders, 
and fishermen. There could not have been any enmity 
or jealousy between them and the Jesuits, as some 
historians intimate. It is true that after Father 
Druillettes returned to Quebec he was informed that 
he would not be needed in Maine at that time. But 
that there could be any dislike or jealousy between 
the Capuchins in Maine and himself is clearly dispro- 



200 The Makers of Maine 

ven by the following quotation from a letter written 
to him in 1648 by Father Cosmas de Mantes, then 
superior, and preserved in the Jesuit Relations: "We 
entreat your Reverence, through the holy love of Jesus 
and Mary, for the salvation of these poor souls towards 
the south, who beg it of you to give them every assis- 
tance that your courageous and indefatigable charity 
can bestow; and if, in crossing the Kennebec you should 
meet any of Ours, you will please us if you will make 
known your needs to them; and if you have none to 
ask, to continue your holy instructions to those poor 
abandoned barbarians as much as your charity will 
permit." 

Besides the missions on the Penobscot and Kenne- 
bec, it is highly probable that other Capuchin Fathers 
were from time to time at different places along the 
coast, as they were frequently called upon to serve as 
chaplains of French vessels. But, for the reason men- 
tioned before, the lack of daily records kept by the 
missionaries themselves, little is known of their his- 
tory. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

The Famous mission to the 
Abenaki Indians 

I come now to the narration of events which have 
always seemed to me of romantic interest, — the story 
of the mission to the Abenaki Indians. The mere 
statement of the words, — "Abenaki Mission," natur- 
ally brings to our minds the name of the great Jesuit 
missionary, one of the greatest of all the missionaries 
of those days, — Father Sebastian Rale, or as his name 
is often spelled, — Rasle. The life and work of this 
great and good man will always remain a prominent 
marker in. the pages of Maine's history, not only because 
of the remarkable results which he accomplished in 
Christianizing and civilizing the Indians of Maine, 
results whose effects are seen to this day in the remnants 
of that once great and powerful tribe, but also because 
of the valuable contributions to history- which he has 
left to posterity in his \\Titings, his diary and letters, 
and especially his invaluable dictionary of the Abenaki 
language, which is now in the possession of Harvard 
University and preserved in the library at Cambridge. 

In considering the history of this period, however 
we must not forget to give due credit to the other Mis- 
sionary Fathers who labored and suffered privation 
and disease in this land, now the State of Maine. We 
must not forget the names of the brothers. Bigot, nor 
Gabriel Druillettes. 

Father Druillettes was without doubt as learned 



202 THE MAKERS OF MAINE 

and able a man as Father Rale; and he certainly was 
loved as much by the Indians as Rale; but he had not 
the opportunity to remain with the Abenaki Indians 
for many years as Father Rale had. His superiors sent 
him from place to place. Druillettes' name will alway 
be famous in history, as the name of the only Catholic 
priest ever sent on a diplomatic mission by the French 
government at Quebec to the English government of 
Massachusetts. He was a minister plenipotentiary 
with full diplomatic powers. Moreover, the fact which 
makes his career unique in the history of those days is 
that he was received with all the honor due a high dip- 
lomatic representative, and, in so far as the results 
of his diplomatic mission depended on his own work 
and efforts, he fully accomplished the object of the 
mission. 

Before relating the story of this diplomatic mis- 
sion to the English colonies, let us for a moment con- 
sider the state of the Massachusetts English in the 
matter of religion. 

I have said that the Puritans of Massachusetts had 
little love for the early English settlers in Maine, on 
account of the difference in religion between the two 
classes of Englishmen. As we know, the English in 
Maine were principally of the High Church persuasion. 
The adherents of this Church were as abhorrent to the 
Puritans of Massachusetts, as were the Catholics. 

When the Pilgrims and the Puritans settled in 
Massachusetts, they established a true Theocrasy. 
Only the members enrolled in the Church had any 
right to a voice in the governing of the colony; only 
they had the right to vote. They not only excluded 
Catholics, but excluded all other Protestants who 
differed from them in religious faith. 

Roger Williams, the Baptist, was driven out. 



Famous Mission to Abnaki 203 

Gorton, another Baptist, was flogged and driven out. 
Mrs. Hutchinson was exiled; the Quakers were hanged. 
In 1631 Sir Christopher Gardiner was driven out of the 
colony on mere suspicion of being a Catholic, without 
trial and without opportunity to make a defense. 

Roger Williams, whom so many historians have 
so wrongly dignified as the "Father of Toleration," 
in America, declared the cross to be the "relic of Anti- 
Christ," a "Papist symbol savoring of superstition, and 
not to be countenanced by Christian men," and his 
followers went so far as to cut the cross out of the Eng- 
lish flag, refusing to live or fight under a flag which 
bore the sign accepted by all Christian nations as a 
symbol of the redemption of man. 

In 1647 the General Court of Massachusetts met 
and adopted an act to prevent the Jesuits entering 
their domains. I quote the preamble to show the state 
of mind existing among those men: — "The court, 
taking into consideration the great wars, combustions 
and divisions, which are this day in Europe, and that 
the same are observed to be raised and fomented chiefly 
by the secret underminings, and the solicitations of 
those of the Jesuitical order, men brought up and 
devoted to the religion and the Court of Rome, which 
had occasioned divers States to expel them from their 
territories" — The act goes on to forbid all Jesuits 
entering the colony under penalty of death, but with 
great humanity they kindly provided that if a Jesuit 
should be shipwrecked on their shore, they would not 
hang him. 

It was to such a people, with such an opinion of the 
Catholic Church and the Jesuit Fathers, such a hatred 
for the very name of Jesuit, that the Rev. Fr. Gabriel 
Druillettes S. J., went in the year 1650, and was re- 
ceived with respect and friendliness. 



CHAPTER XXX 

Father Druillettes' Diplomatic 
Mission to Boston 

Father Druillettes was born September 29, 1610. 
He was educated at a Jesuit College in France, and 
came to Canada in 1643. He seemed to have a natural 
aptitude for acquiring languages, and became proficient 
in several Indian dialects. He went for the first time 
to the Abenaki Indians of Maine in the year 1646. 
He stayed with them a year and then returned to 
Quebec. 

The writings of Father Druillettes make very in- 
teresting reading. He says that his journey from Que- 
bec to Maine through the forests was one of inconceiv- 
able difficulty. The Abenakis received him with great 
joy. He relates this instance: 

" 'A captain touched my heart. He repeated to me 
often in public and in private that he loved his children 
more than himself. 'I have lost two of them,' he ad- 
ded, 'since thy departure. Their death is not my 
greatest grief; but thou did not baptize them, that is 
what afflicts me; but I know not whether I did right, 
and whether I shall ever see them in heaven. If thou 
thyself had baptized them, I would not mourn them, 
or be sorry because of their death; on the contrary I 
would be comforted. If to banish my sadness, thou 
wert willing]at [least to promise not to think of Kebec 
for at least ten years, and not to leave us during that 
time, thou wouldst show that thou lovest us.' There- 



Father Druillettes 20s 

upon he conducted me to the grave of his two children 
over whom he planted two fine crosses painted red, 
which he went to salute from time to time. It was 
within sight of the English themselves, who lived at 
Kousinok, the place where the cemetery of these good 
people is situated.' " 

In the late summer of the year 1650 he left Quebec 
on his diplomatic mission to the English of Boston, 
carrying letters giving him full plenipotentiary powers. 
He went by way of the old trail through Norridgewock 
and Augusta. At Augusta he was received by the 
commandant, John Winslow, with great respect, and 
such was the character of Druillettes that he at once 
won the lasting esteem and friendship of Winslow. 
He then proceeded with Winslow to Merrymeeting Bay, 
and embarked there for Boston, arriving in Boston in 
the late fall on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. 
He was received with the respect due a minister pleni- 
potentiary. He relates that he was waited on by the 
principal men of Charlestown, and that Major-Gen- 
eral Gibbons invited him to his house, and, he says, 
"gave me the key of a room where I might in all liberty 
pray and perform the other exercises of my religion, 
and he besought me to take no other lodging while 
in Boston." Now, Father Druillettes does not say that 
he celebrated Mass in his room, while in Boston, but 
knowing what we do of his great piety and sanctity, 
we may have every reason to believe that he did, and 
that the Sacrifice of the Mass was therefore offered in 
Boston in December, 1650. He was well received by 
Governor Dudley at Boston, and by Governor Brad- 
ford at Plymouth. He relates that while at Plymouth, 
Governor Bradford invited him to dinner on a Friday, 
and had a special dinner of fish prepared. He spent 
a night with John Elliot, the English Apostle to the 



206 The Makers of maine 

Indians, and won Elliot's friendship. In February 
he returned to the Kennebec to resume his missionary 
labors. 

There is nothing in Father Druillettes' Relation 
which would lead one to believe that, at that time, 
there was a single Catholic living in Boston. He says 
that the only Catholic whom he found on his voyage 
was a French sailor at York. He relates that in the 
year 1651 he paid a second visit to the English colonies, 
but of that visit we have no details. But, it seems 
that he went this time as far south as Hartford, and 
was kindly received there. Father Druillettes remained 
with the Abnaki Mission on the Kennebec until 1656. 

The Boston and the Plymouth people were in 
favor of uniting with the French against the Iroquois, 
The Plymouth people were especially favorable to 
Fr. Druillettes' diplomatic mission, because their trade 
with the Abenaki Indians had grown to quite consider- 
able proportions. When Druillettes returned to Que- 
bec from his mission to the English he felt certain 
that he had accomplished the alliance and friendship 
which he so much desired. Although he failed, he left 
with the English a different impression of a Catholic 
priest than they had previously held. 

The English missionary, Elliot, pressed him to 
remain as his guest for the winter. The name and 
fame of Elliot are held dear to the hearts of the English 
Protestant writers of history. He was to them the 
ideal type of missionary. We know that they speak 
contemptuously of the French Jesuits, and ascribe 
their success with the Indians to the fact, as they 
charge, that the Jesuits lived the savage life and be- 
came to all intents and purposes savages themselves. 
But this view of the Jesuits, however pleasing it may be 
to those whose religious prejudices prevent them from 



Father Druillettes 207 

admitting the truth, could not have been the view held 
by Elliot, and surely he must have been a good judge. 
If Elliot had regarded Father Druillettes as little better 
than a savage, it is unlikely that he would have extended 
an invitation to him to spend the winter with him as 
his guest. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
THE ROMANTIC HISTORY OF FATHER 

Sebastian Rale, S. J. 

The name of Father Rale, his character, and his 
activities, illuminate the pages of every history of Maine 
ever written and of every article treating of this period 
of our history. That he was a great man is attested 
by the fact, (if there were no other proof) that no other 
man who figured in the history of those days has been 
so outrageously vilified and abused by Protestant 
writers of history as Father Rale. But he has at last 
come into his own, and his name is now spoken with 
respect and his memory is revered. But, as I have 
said, ii. was not formerly so. The following is William- 
son's characterization of him. (Volume H, Page 100.) 
"Rale, the famous Jesuit, was deemed the principal 
instigator of these insults. He was a man of talents 
and learning; and by his condescending manners, re- 
ligious zeal, and untiring perseverance, he had greatly 
endeared himself to the tribe. He had sided with them 
and been their tutelar father thirty years; and many 
of them he had taught to read and write. To render 
their devotion an incentive to violence, it is said, he 
kept a banner figured with a cross, which was encircled 
by bows and arrows; and while he was giving them 
absolution before they proceeded to war, or upon any 
hostile expedition, he was in the habit of suspending; 
the flag from a tall standard at the door o f his chapel 
aware of the advantages gained, if he could give every 
bold sally of the Indians, the character of a crusade. 



Father Sebastian Rale. S. J. 209 

Fond of epistolary correspondence, he kept up a con- 
stant intercourse with Vaudreuil, the Governor of 
Canada; giving him an account of every settlement, 
fort or other enterprise, commenced by the English; 
and receiving in return, advices how to incite and direct 
the Indians against the settlers. He sent Governor 
Shute a very bold letter, filled with curious logic, to 
prove the exclusive right of the Indians to the country 
they inhabited." 

The letters of Father Rale which have been pre- 
served, absolutely disprove the above assertion, on the 
contrary, absolutely prove that the assertion was made 
by Williamson either in ignorance or in malice. As 
to his letter to Governor Shute, at Boston, it was writ- 
ten for the Indians, at their request, and it was their 
thoughts put into proper language. And indeed, who 
doubts now but that it was the truth? 

Williamson goes on to say: "The different branch- 
es of the government were not agreed what course was 
best to be pursued against him. The House resolved 
to send a warrant to John Leighton, sheriff of York- 
shire, and orders unto Colonel Walton, to attend him 
with a military guard of 150 men, and directed them 
to proceed to Norridgewock, seize the Jesuit, and bring 
him to Boston, dead or alive; offering them a reward 
of 500 pounds sterling for his body, besides the usual 
wages. If he could not be found, or if the tribe refused 
to produce him, it was ordered that several of the prin- 
cipal Indians be seized and conveyed to Boston." 

Sev^eral expeditions were sent by the English 
against Father Rale, and, as is well known, he was 
finally killed, I will relate the account of his death 
later. But now, as I am not writing history, but vi ws 
of history, I desire to quote more or less from Father 
Rale's own writings. I think that such quotations 



210 The Makers of Maine 

from the original letters of the great and good Jesuit 
will be of much more interest to my readers than bald 
statements of facts of history. 

In a letter to his nephew in France, written at 
Narrantsouak, (now Norridgewock, ) October 15, 1772, 
speaking of his mission and his work, he says: "I am 
in a district of this vast extent of territory which lies 
between Acadia and New England. Two other mis- 
sionaries are, like myself, busy among the Abnaki 
savages; but we are far distant from one another. The 
The Abnaki savages, besides the two villages which 
they have in the midst of the French colony, have also 
three other important ones, each situated on the bank 
of a river. These three rivers empty into the sea to 
the south of Canada, between New England and Acadia" 
(The reader , of course, recognizes these three rivers 
as the Penobscot, the Kennebec and the Androscoggin. 
It is not generally known at this day that there was a 
Jesuit mission along the Androscoggin, but it is a fact. ) 
"The village in which I dwell is called Narrantsouak; 
it is situated on the bank of a river, which empties into 
the sea thirty leagues below. I have built here a church 
which is commodious and well adorned. I though 
it my duty to spare nothing, either for its decoration 
or for the beauty of the vestments that are used in 
our holy ceremonies; altar cloths, chasubles, copes, 
sacred vessels, everything is suitable, and would be 
esteemed in the churches of Europe. I have trained 
a minor clergy of about forty young savages, who in 
cassocks and surplices assist at divine service; each one 
has his duty, not only in serving at the holy sacrifice 
of the Mass, but in chanting the divine ofifice at the 
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and in the pro- 
cessions, which are made with a great concourse of 
savages, who often come from a great distance in order 



Father Rale, S. J. 211 

to be present at them. You would be edified at the 
good order which they observe, and with the reverence 
which they show. 

"Two chapels have been built about three hundred 
steps from the village, one which is dedicated to the 
most Blessed Virgin, and in which her statue in relief 
is seen, stands at the head of the river; the other which 
is dedicated to the Guardian Angel is below on the 
same river. As they both are on the path that leads 
either to the woods or to the fields, the savages never 
pass them without offering prayers therein. 

"None of my neophytes fail to come twice every 
day to church, — in the early morning to hear Mass, 
and in the evening to be present at the prayer which I 
offer at sunset. As it is necessary to fix the thoughts 
of the savages, which wander only too easily, I have 
composed some prayers, suited to make them enter 
into the spirit of the august Sacrifice of our altars, they 
chant these, or rather, they recite them aloud, during 
Mass. Besides the sermons that I preach to them on 
Sundays and on Feast Days, I seldom pass over a work- 
ing day without making them a short exhortation, in 
order to ins pire them with horror for the vices to which 
they have most inclination, or to strengthen them in 
the practice of some virtue. 

"After Mass I catechize the children and the young 
people; a great number of older persons are present, 
and answer with docility to the questions which I ask 
them. The remainder of the morning until noon is 
devoted to all those who have anything to tell me. 
At that time they come in crowds to reveal to me their 
griefs and anxieties, or to tell me the causes of their 
complaints which they have against their tribesmen, 
or to consult me about their marriages or their other 
private affairs. I must instruct some, and console 



212 The Makers of Maine 

others; re-establish peace in disunited families, and 
calm troubled consciences; and correct a few others 
with reprimands, mingled with gentleness and charity, 
— in fine, send them all away content as far as I can. 

"In the afternoon I visit the sick and go to the 
cabins of those who have need of special instruction. 
If they are holding a council, which often happens 
among the savages, they send one of the chiefs to the 
meeting, who begs me to be present at their delibera- 
tions. I go immediately to the place where the council 
is in session. If I think that they are taking a wise 
course, I approve of it; if, on the contrary, I find any- 
thing amiss in their decision, I declare my own opinion, 
which I support with a few sound reasons and they 
conform to it. My advice always determines their 
decisions. I am invited even to their feasts. Each 
guest brings a dish of wood or of bark. I bless the 
food; then the prepared portion is put upon each dish. 
The"' distribution having been made, I say grace, and 
each one withdraws, for such is the course and the 
custom of their feasts. 

"In the midst of these continual occupations you 
can hardly believe with what rapidity the days pass 
away. There has been a time when I scarcely had 
time to recite my office, or to take a little rest during 
the night, for discretion is not a virtue among the sav- 
ages. But for some years past I have made it a rule 
not to speak with any one from the hour of evening 
prayer until after Mass the next day; and I have for- 
bidden them to interrupt me during that time, unless 
it were for some important reason, as for instance, to 
aid a dying person, or for some other matter which 
could not be delayed. I used that time for attending 
to prayer, and resting from the labors of the day. 

"The whole Abnakis Nation is Christian and is 



Father Rale, S. J. 218 

very zealous in preserving its religion. This attach- 
ment to the CathoHc faith had made it thus far prefer 
an alliance with us to the advantages that it would 
have obtained from an alliance with its English neigh- 
bors. These advantages are very attractive to our 
savages; the readiness with which they can engage in 
trade with the English, from whom they are distant 
only two or three days' journey, the convenience of the 
route, the great bargains they find in the purchase 
of goods which suit them, nothing could be more likely 
to attract them. Whereas in going to Quebec they 
must travel more than fifteen days to reach it, they 
must be supplied with provisions for the journey, there 
are several rivers to cross and frequent portages to 
make. They feel these inconveniences, and they are 
not indifferent to their own interests; but their faith 
is infinitely dearer to them, and they believe that if 
they were to break off their connection with us they 
would very soon be without a missionary, without Sac- 
raments, w^ithout the Sacrifice, almost without any ser- 
vice of religion, and in manifest danger of being plunged 
back into their former unbelief. This is the bond which 
unites them to the French. There have been vain 
endeavors to break this bond — both by snares that have 
been laid for their simplicity, and by violence, which 
could not fail to irritate a tribe so infinitely jealous as 
this is of its rights and liberty. These beginnings of 
misunderstanding continue to alarm me, and make me 
fear the dispersion of the fiock which Providence has 
confided to my care for so many years, and for which I 
would willingly sacrifice all that remains to me in life. 
See the various artifices to which the English have re- 
sorted to detach them from the alliance with us." 



CHAPTER XXXII 

THE Relentless Persecution of Father 
Rale by the English 

I have said that several attempts were made by 
the English to capture Father Rale, before they finally 
succeeded in killing him. I desire now to quo te the 
words of Williamson, the historian, concerning one of 
the attempts to capture the priest, and then Father 
Rale's own account of the occurrence. It may be of 
interest to compare the two accounts, the one taken 
from the English records, the other the very words of 
the hunted and persecuted priest. 

Williamson says, (Volume II, page 124). "Un- 
attended by the French, and kept in awe by the English 
ranging parties, the Indians undertook no winter cam- 
paign; nor was anything memorable achieved by our 
forces till spring. But there was still a strong and 
universal desire to make Rale a prisoner and have him 
brought to Boston aHve. It is said a thousand Hvres 
was the high price set upon his head. To dispatch 
him, therefore, or rather to take him. Captain Moul- 
ton led a military party to Norridgewock in the depth 
of winter. But the cautious Jesuit and the tribe had 
made a seasonable and safe retreat, and all the trophies 
of the enterprise were only a few books and papers 
found in his own dwelling house, among which was a 
letter from the Governor of Canada exhorting him to 
'push on the Indians with all imaginable zeal against 
the English.' But Captain Moulton was no less a 



Persecution of Father Rale 215 

cool and discreet man, than a brave and popular officer 
and when he and his men had left the place he permitted 
no injury to be done, either to the chapel or any other 
building; imagining probably such an example of for- 
bearance and moderation might be imitated by the 
enemy." 

The following is Father Rale's account in his own 
words written to his nephew: "The attempt of the 
English against myself was the second act of hostility 
which brought to a climax the excessive irritation of 
the Abnaki tribe. A missionary can scarcely fail to 
be an object of hate to these gentlemen. Love for the 
religion which he endeavors to impress upon the hearts 
of those savages holds these neophytes firmly in unon 
with us and separates them from the English. The 
latter, therefore, regard me as an invincible obstacle 
to their plan of spreading themselves over the territory 
of the Abnakis, and of gradually seizing this mainland 
which is between New England and Acadia. (The 
reader recognizes the writer to mean what is now the 
State of Maine.) They have often attempted to re- 
move me from my flock and more than once a price 
has been set upon my head. It was about the end of 
January in the year 1722 when they made anew attempt 
which had no other success than to manifest their ill 
will toward me. I had remained alone in the village 
with a small number of old men and feeble folk, while 
the rest of the savages were at the hunt. That time 
appeared favorable to the enemy for surprising me; 
and, with this in view, they sent out a detachment of 
two hundred men. Two young Abnakis, who were 
hunting on the seashore, heard that the Englih 
had entered the river, they immediately turned 
their steps to that quarter, so as to observe the move- 
ments of the English. Having perceived them about 



216 THE Makers of Maine 

ten leagues from the village, these savages outran them 
by crossing the country, that they might inform me, 
and help the old men, women and children to retire in 
haste. I had only time to consume the hosts, to enclose 
i n a small box the sacred vessels, and to escape into the 
woods. Towards evening, the English reached the 
village; and not having found me there, they came 
the next day to look for me in the very place of our 
retreat. They were within only a gunshot when we 
descried them; all that I could do was to plunge with 
haste into the forest. But as I had no time to take my 
snowshoes, and as, besides, I still experienced great 
weakness caused by a fall, in which some years ago my 
thigh and leg were broken, it was not possible for me to 
run very far. The only resource that remained to me 
was to hide behind a tree. They immediately searched 
the various paths worn by the savages when they go 
for wood, and came within eight steps of the tree that 
was sheltering me, where naturally they must have 
perceived me, for the trees had shed their leaves; never- 
theless, as if they had been driven away by an invisible 
hand, they suddenly retraced their steps, and again 
took the way to the village. Thus it was by a special 
protection of Providence that I escaped from their 
pursuit. They pillaged my church and my little house, 
thereby almost reducing me to a death from starvation 
in the midst of the woods. It is true that, when my 
adventure was known in Quebec, provisions were sent 
to me immediately; but they could not arrive for some 
time, and during that period I was deprived of all aid 
and in extreme need." 

It is a fact, that in those days, as now, much of the 
fear and hatred which the Protestants had of the 
Jesuits was caused by a deep-seated, monumental, and 
almost inconceivable ignorance of the priests of this 



? ^^ 






Cr, 



^ 



>^r 




Persecution of father Rale 217 

society as men, as fellow human beings. The Protes- 
tant colonists of those days rarely came in contact 
with a Jesuit in the flesh. Indeed we may well say, 
never came in contact with a priest of any description, 
for the "Romish" priests were a proscribed race of men 
in the New England colonies. For the matter of that, 
at that time Jesuit priests were unknown in England. 
It was believed that at different times some were within 
the British borders in disguise; but the reader 
will remember how, in an earlier article, of this series, 
it was related concerning Father Biard, that when he 
was in England as a sort of half prisoner, half guest, 
he was as great a curiosity to the English, even those 
of the cultured and educated classes, as an Indian sav- 
age himself. Even in our own day, in this State, we 
have seen the fogs of bigotry and religious prejudice 
dissipated by the mere fact of every day contact with 
priests and nuns. 

In the time of the Jesuit missions we find that it 
was the English who lived at a distance from the mis- 
sions, those who lived in Boston and other parts of 
Massachusetts, who hated and feared the Jesuits. 
We gather from reading the Relations of the Jesuits, 
that the English traders, who lived at the Kousinok 
settlement on the Kennebec (at what is now the city of 
Augusta) saw a good deal of the Jesuits of the Kenne- 
bec mission and liked chem very well. Those men 
could, and did, testify that the work and influence of 
the priests among the Indians was all for good. 
But unfortunately, those traders were men of little 
education, men of action, makers of history rather 
than writers of history, and they left no memoirs behind 
them. My only proof of this statement and contention 
is the secondary evidence of the Jesuits themselves, that 
the traders on the Kennebec were friendly toward them. 



218 The Makers of Maine 

It has often been a matter of speculation why it 
happened that the Protestant missionaries met with 
such little success in their efforts to convert the Indians 
to the Protestant version of Christianity. Many writ- 
ers dismiss the subject, with a certain smug self-satis- 
faction and superiority, by assuming that the ornate 
ceremonies of the Catholic Church appealed to the 
childish intelligence of the savages, that, in other words, 
the conversion of the Indians was a matter of the emo- 
tions only, and not the abiding convictions of the in- 
tellect. 

Let us read the words of Father Rale on this mat- 
ter. He says, in a letter to his nephew: "Some years 
ago, the Governor General of New England sent to the 
foot of our river the most able man among the ministers 
of Boston, that he might open a school there, instruct 
the children of the savages, and maintain them at the 
expense of the government. As the salary of the minister 
was to increase in proportion to the number of his pu- 
pils, he neglected no means to attain them; he went 
to seek the children, he flattered them, he made them 
little presents, he urged them to come and see him, 
in short, he worked for two months with much useless 
activity, without being able to win a single child. The 
disdain with which his attentions and his invitations 
were treated did not discourage him. He spoke to the 
savages themselves; he put to them various questions 
touching their faith; and then, from the answers that 
were made to him, he turned into derision the sacra- 
ments, purgatory, the invocation of the saints, the 
beads, the crosses, the images, the lights of our churches, 
and all the pious customs that are so sacredly observed 
in the Catholic religion. 

" 'I thought it was my duty to oppose these first 
attempts to mislead ; I wrote a civil letter to the minis- 



Persecution of Father Rale 219 

ter, in which I told him that my Christians knew how 
to believe the truths which the Catholic Faith teaches, 
but they did not know how to discuss them; that as 
they were not sufficiently learned to solve the difficul- 
ties which he had proposed he had evidently intended 
that they should be communicated to me; that I seized 
with pleasure this opportunity that he had offered me, 
to confer with him either by word of mouth or by letter; 
that I thereupon sent him a memoir and besought him 
to read it with serious attention. In this memoir 
which was about a hundred pages, I proved by script- 
ture, by tradition, and by theological arguments the 
truths which he had attacked by such stale jests. I 
added, in closing my letter, that if he were not satisfied 
with my proofs, I would expect from him a precise 
refutation, supported by theological proofs, and not by 
vague arguments which prove nothing, — still less by 
injurious reflections, which befitted neither our pro- 
fession nor the importance of the subject in question. 
"Two days after receiving my letter, he set out 
to return to Boston; he sent me a short answer, which 
I was obliged to read several times in order to compre- 
hend its meaning, so obscure was its style and so extra- 
ordinary its Latin However, by dint of reflection, I 
understood that he complained that I had attacked 
him without reason; that zeal for the salvation of souls 
had led him to teach the savages the way to Heaven; 
and that, for the rest, my proofs were absurd and child- 
ish. Having sent to him in Boston a second letter, in 
which I pointed out the defects of his own, he answered 
me at the end of two years, without even entering upon 
the subject; and said that I had a peevish and fault- 
finding spirit which was the sign of a temperament 
inclined to anger. Thus was finished our dispute, 



220 The Makers of Maine 

which drove away the minister, and brought to naught 
the scheme that he had formed to mislead my neo- 
phytes." 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

Father Rale's Influence Upon 
The Indians 

I will quote a sermon of Father Rale's to the In- 
dians. A tribe who were not Christians came to the 
village where Father Rale's Christian Abenakis lived 
and witnessed a procession of Corpus Christi day. 
He says: 

"This spectacle, which was new to the Amalingans, 
touched them, and struck them with admiration, I 
believed it my duty to profit by the favorable mood in 
which they were; and after having brought them to- 
gether, I made them the following address in the savage 
style : 

"My children, for a long time I have desired to 
see you; now, that I have this happiness, my heart is 
full, almost to bursting. Think of the joy that a 
father has, who tenderly loves his children, when he 
sees them again after a long absence in which they have 
run great dangers, and you will conceive a part of mine. 
For, although you do not as yet pray, I nevertheless 
look upon you as my children, and have for you a fath- 
er's tenderness, because you are the children of the 
Great Spirit, who has given life to you, as well as to 
those who pray; who has made Heaven for you as well 
as for them ; who thinks of you as he thinks of them and 
of me, and who desires that all should enjoy eternal 
happiness. What causes my sorrow and diminishes 
my joy in seeing you is the thought, which I have at 



222 The Makers of Maine 

this moment, that some 'day I shall be separated fro m 
a part of my children, whose destiny will be eternally 
unfortunate because they do not pray; while the others, 
who pray, will be in joy which will never end. When 
I think of this sad separation, can I have a contented 
heart? The happiness of those who pray does not 
give me so much joy as the unhappiness of those who 
do not pray grieves me. If you have insurmountable 
obstacles to prayer, and if, remaining in the condition 
in which you are, I were able to make you enter into 
Heaven, I would spare nothing in order to procure for 
you this happiness. I would urge you on, I would 
make you all enter there, so much do I love you, and so 
much do I desire that you should be happy; but that 
is not possible. You must pray, and you must be 
baptized, that you may be able to enter that place of 
delight." 

There is much more of it, but the foregoing will 
suffice to show how well Father Rale understood how 
to talk to the Indians. He relates that he afterwards 
succeeded in baptizing this whole tribe, men, women 
and children, without one exception. 

About the first of August in the year 1721 there 
was a conference between the Indians and the English 
Governor and his representatives, held at Arowsick 
at the mouth of the Kennebec. Williamson, (Volume 
II, page 106) says that there were 200 Indians accom- 
panied by Fathers Rale, La Chase, Croisel, and Castine 
the Younger. He says that they were well armed and 
carried the French colors, and that they presented a 
letter to the Governor purporting to come from the sev- 
eral tribes and declaring that if "the settlers did not 
remove in three weeks, the Indians would come and 
kill them all, destroy their cattle, and burn their houses, 
for, they added, you Englishmen have taken away the 



Father Rale's Influence 223 

lands which the Great God has given our fathers and us." 
I mention the above as related by Williamson 
because it is one of the many instances of misrepre- 
sentation of the facts in order to prove his assertion 
that the Jesuit Rale inspired and stirred up the Indians 
to strife. Fortunately, it happens that Father Rale 
mentions this very same conference; and his descrip- 
tion and relation are as follows: 

"At the time when war was on the point^^^of break- 
ing out between the European powers, the English 
Governor, who had recently arrived in Boston, asked 
our savages to give him an interview on an island in 
the sea which he designated. They consented and 
begged me to accompany them, that they might con- 
sult me about the crafty propositions that would be 
made to them, so as to be sure that their answers 
should contain nothing contrary to religion, or to the 
interests of the Royal service. I followed them, and 
my intention was to keep wholly within their quarters, 
in order to aid them by my counsel without appear- 
ing before the Governor. As we, numbering more 
than two hundred canoes, were approaching the island, 
the English saluted us by a discharge of all the guns 
of their vessels, and the savages responded to this sa- 
lute by a like discharge of all their guns. Then the 
Governor appearing on the island, the savages landed 
in haste; thus I found myself where I did not wish to 
be, and where the Governor did not wish me to be. 
As soon as he perceived me, he came forward a few steps 
to meet me; and after the usual compliments, he re- 
turned to the midst of his people, and I to my savages. 
"It is commanded by our Queen" he said to them, 
"that I come to see you; she desires that we live in peace. 
If any Englishmen should be imprudent enough to do 
you wrong; do not think of avenging yourselves upon 



224 The Makers of Maine 

him, but immediately address your complaint to me, 
and I will render you prompt justice. If we should 
happen to have war with the French, remain neutral, 
and do not take part in our differences; the French are 
as strong as we, therefore leave us to settle our quarrels 
with each other. We will supply all your wants, we 
will take your peltries, and we will give you our goods 
at a reasonable price." My presence prevented him 
saying all that he intended; for it was not without a 
design that he had brought a minister with him. 

"When he had finished speaking, the savages 
withdrew for the purpose of deliberating together upon 
the answer that they should make. During that time, 
the Governor taking me aside, said to me, "Monsieur, 
I beg of you, do not influence your Indians to make war 
upon us." I answered him that my religion and my 
office of priest were a security that I would give them 
only exhortations to peace. I was still speaking when 
I found myself surrounded by about twenty young 
warriors, who were fearing that the Governor intended 
to carry me off. In the meantime the savages ad- 
vanced, and one of them made the following reply to 
the Governor: 

"Great Captain, thou tellest us not to join ourselves 
with the Frenchmen, in case thou declare war upon 
him; thou knowest that the Frenchman is my brother. 
We have the same prayer; he and I; and we are in the 
same cabin with two fires; he has one fire, and I have 
the other. If I see thee enter the cabin on the side 
of the fire where my brother the Frenchman is seated, 
I watch thee from my mat, where I am seated by the 
other fire. If in watching thee, I perceive that thou 
carriest a hatchet I shall think, what does the English- 
man intend to do with that hatchet? Then I stand 
upon my mat, to behold what he will do. If he raises 



Father Rale's Influence 225 

the hatchet to strike my brother the Frenchman, I 
take my own, and I run toward the Englishman to 
strike him. Could I see my brother struck in my 
cabin, and I remain on my mat? No,|no, I love my 
brother too well not to defend him. Therefore, I 
say to thee, Great Captain, do nothing to my 
brother, and I shall do nothing to thee; remain quiet 
on thy mat, and I shall remain at rest on mine." 

I think the foregoing quotation will effectually 
dispose of Williamson's and others contentions, that 
the Jesuit influenced the Indians to attack the English. 
The Indians were never such children. They decided 
these matters for themselves. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

Death of Father Rale— Two Widely 
Different Accounts 

Much more could be written concerning the inter- 
esting events in the Hfe and missionary work of Father 
Rale in Maine. But enough, I think, has been set down 
to give the reader an idea of Rale, the man, and the 
missionary priest, the great work he did, the remarkable 
results he accomplished, his commanding ability and 
his saintly character. With the passing of years and 
the softening of the harshness of religious prejudice, 
Father Rale has come into his own. Today, he is 
regarded as a saint and a martyr. 

Nothing remains for me, but to relate in a few 
words the well known story of his death, call it — the 
murder of Father Rale, or the martyrdom of Father 
Rale, as your feelings prompt. And following once 
more the custom that I have pursued in discussing his 
life and his character, I shall, in describing his death, 
quote first the words of the relation to be found in 
Williamson's History of Maine, and then the relation 
of a sympathetic friend, a Jesuit, the Rev. Father 
Pierre Joseph de la Chasse, S. J., Superior General 
of the Missions in New France at Quebec. 

Williamson says, (Vol. II, page 129): "Norridge- 
wock, being still the residence of Rale, was immediately 
marked for destruction. The execution of this enter- 
prise was committed to a detachment of 208 men, who 
were divided into four companies, and commanded 



The Death of Father Rale 227 

by Captains Moulton, Harmon, Bourne and Bane. 
They left Richmond fort, their place of rendesvouz, on 
the 19th of August (1724), and ascended the river in 
seventeen whale boats, attended by three Mohawks. 
The next day, they arrived at Teconnet, where they 
left their whale boats, and a lieutenant with a guard of 
40 men. The residue of the forces, on the 21st, took 
up their march through the woods towards Norridge- 
wock. The same evening, they discovered three of 
the natives and fired upon them. The noted Boma- 
zeen, one of them, was shot swimming the river, as he 
attempted to escape, his daughter was fatally wounded, 
and his wife taken prisoner. From her, they obtained 
a full account of Rale and the Indians at Norridgewock 
which quickened their march. 

"A little after noon, on the 22nd, they came in 
sight of the village, when it was determined to divide 
the detachment. Captain Harmon led off about 60 
men toward the mouth of the Sandy river, imagining 
he saw smoke arising in that quarter, and supposing 
some of the Indians might be at their cornfields. Cap- 
tain Moulton formed his men into three bands, nearly 
equal in numbers, and proceeded directly towards the 
village. When near it, he placed parties in ambush, 
on the right and left, and led forward the residue to the 
attack, excepting ten men left to guard the baggage. He 
commanded his men to reserve their fire till after that 
of the Indians; and then boldly advanced with so quick 
a step and in such profound silence, that they were 
within pistol shot before their approach was suspected. 
All the Indians were in their wigwams, when one, hap- 
pening to step out, looked and discovered the Eng- 
lish close upon them. He instantly gave the 
warhoop, and seized his gun. The amazement of 
the whole village was indiscriminate and terrible. 



228 The Makers of Maine 

The fighting men, about 60 in all, seized their guns 
and fired at the assailants; but in their tremor, they 
overshot them, and not a man was hurt. A discharge 
was instantly returned, which did effectual execution. 
The Indians fired a second volley, without breaking 
Moulton's ranks; then flying to the water, fell upon the 
muzzles of the guns in ambush. Several instantly fell. 
Some undertook to wade or swim across the river which 
at this season was only 60 feet wide, and in no place 
more than six feet deep. A few jumped into their 
canoes, but forgetting to take their paddles, were unable 
to escape; and all, especially the old men, women and 
children fled in every direction. Our soldiers shot 
them in their flight to the woods also upon the water; 
so that not more than 50 of the whole village were 
supposed to have landed on the opposite side of the 
river; while about 150 effected an escape too far into the 
thickets to be overtaken. 

"The pursuers then returned to the village, where 
they found the Jesuit, in one of the wigwams, firing 
upon a few of our men, who had not followed the wretch- 
ed fugitives. He had with him in the wigwam an 
English boy about 14 years of age, who had been a 
prisoner for six months. This boy he shot through 
the thigh, and afterwards stabbed him in the body, 
though he ultimately recovered. Moulton had given 
orders to spare the life of Rale; but Jacques, a lieutenant 
finding he was firing from the wigwam and had wounded 
one of our men, stove open the door and shot him 
through the head. As an excuse for this act, Jacques 
alleged that when he entered the wigwam. Rale was 
loading his gun and declaring he would neither give 
nor take quarter. Moulton disapproved of what 
was done; allowing, however, that Rale said something 



The Death of Father Rale 229 

to provoke Jacques, yet doubting, if the statement 
made by him was literally correct. 

"Mott, an aged and noted chief, was shut up in 
another wigwam, from which he fired and killed one 
of the three Mohawks. This so enraged his brother, 
that he broke through the door and shot the old Saga- 
more dead; and the soldiers despatched his squaws and 
children. 

"Near night, after the action was over and the 
village cleared of Indians, Captain Harmon and his 
party arrived; and the companies under a guard of 40 
men, took up a lodgment in the wigwam till morning. 
When it was light they counted, as two authors state, 
twenty-seven, and a third says, thirty dead bodies, in- 
cluding Rale; among> whom were those of Mogg, Job, 
Carabesett, Wissemenet, and Bomaseen's son-in-law, all 
known and noted warriors. They also recovered three 
captives and took four prisoners; and it was afterwards 
reported, that they wounded fourteen Indians who es- 
caped. The whole number killed and drowned was sup- 
posed to be eighty, some say more. The plunder brought 
away, consisted of the plate furniture of the altar, 
a few guns, blankets and kettles, and about three bar- 
rels of powder. After leaving the place, on their march 
to Teconnet, Christian, one of the Mohawks, either 
sent back or returning of his own accord, set fire to the 
chapel and cottages, and they were all burnt to ashes." 

After quoting the account of the death of Fathei 
Rale as given by Chalevoix in his "Histoire de la Nou- 
velle France," which difTers essentially from his own, 
and dismissing it with a sneer at what he calls its "em- 
bellishments," (although I can testify, as can any 
one who reads Charlevoix, that it is singularly free 
from embellishments,) Williamson goes on as follows: 

"On the 27th the hrave detachment arrived at Fort 



280 The Makers of Maine 

Richmond, without the loss of a man. It was an 
exploit exceedingly gratifying to the community, and 
considered as brilliant as any other, in either of the 
Indian wars, since the fall of King Phillip, Harmon 
who was senior in command, proceeded to Boston 
with the scalps, and received in reward for the achieve- 
ment the commission of lieutenant-colonel; an achieve- 
ment in which Moulton had the principal agency, 
although he received no distinguishing recompense, 
except the universal applause of his country." 
be The italics are mine. The whole story ought to 

quoted in italics, it is so extraordinary. 
One wonders in what does the bravery consist 
to slaughter defenseless Indian women and children, 
and to murder one poor, old, helpless priest, for of 
course, no one for a moment believes the story that the 
Jesuit was found armed in a wigwam, firing upon the 
English, and killing in cold blood a young English boy, 
fourteen years of age. 

Let us return to the "Relations des Jesuits," and read 
a part of the letter written by the Rev. Father de la 
Chasse, Superior- General of the missions in New France, 
which will tell the story somewhat differently, and 
nearer the truth: 

Quebec, Oct. 29, 1724. 
My Reverend Father: 

The peace of Our Lord. 

In the deep grief that we are experiencing 
from the loss of our oldest missionary, it is a 
grateful consolation to us that he should have 
been the victim of his own love, and of his zeal 
to maintain the Faith in the hearts of his neo- 
phytes. From other letters you have already 
learned the origin of the war which broke out 
between the English and the savages; with 



The Death of Father Rale 231 

the former, a desire to extend their rule; with 
the latter, a horror of all subjection, and an 
attachment to their religion, these caused, in the 
beginning, the misunderstandings which in the 
end were followed by an open rupture. 

Father Rale, the missionary of the Abnakis 
had become very odious to the English. As 
they were convinced that his endeavors to 
confirm the savages in the Faith constituted 
the greatest obstacle to their plan of usurping 
the territory of the savages, they put a price up- 
on his head; and more than once had attempted 
to abduct him, or to take his life. At last they 
have succeeded in gratifying their passion of 
hatred, and in ridding themselves of the aposto- 
lic man, but, at the same time, they have pro- 
cured for him a glorious death, wliich was ever 
the object of his desire, for we know that long 
ago, he aspired to the happiness of sacrificing 
his life for his flock. I will describe to you in a 
few words the circumstances of that event. 

After many acts of hostility had been 
committed on both sides by the two nations, 
a little army of Englishmen and their savage 
allies, numbering eleven hundred men, unex- 
pectedly came to attack the village of Narran- 
souak. The dense thickets with which that 
village is surrounded helped them to conceal 
their movements; and since it was not inclosed 
by palisades, the savages were taken by surprise 
and became aware of the enemy's approach 
only by a volley from their muskets, which 
riddled all the cabins. At that time there 
were only fifty warriors in the village. At the 
first noise of the muskets, they tumultuously 
seized their weapons, and went out of their 
cabins to oppose the enemy. Their design was 
not rashly to meet the onset of so many com- 
batants, but to further the flight of the women 
and the children, and give them time to gain 
the other side of the river, which was not yet 
occupied by the English. 



232 The Makers of Maine 

Father Rale, warned by the clamor and 
the tumult of the danger which was menacing 
his neophytes, promptly left his house and 
fearlessly appeared before the enemy. He 
expected by his presence either to stop their 
first efforts, or at least to draw their attention 
to himself alone, and at the expense of his life 
procure the safety of his flock. 

Soon as they perceived the missionary a gen- 
eral shout was raised which was followed by a 
storm of musketshot that was poured upon 
him. He dropped dead at the foot of a large 
cross that he had erected in the midst of the 
village, in order to announce the public pro- 
fession that was made therein of adoring a 
crucified God. Seven savages who were 
around him, and were exposing their lives to 
guard that of their father, were killed by his 
side. The death of the shepherd dismayed 
the flock; the savages took to flight and crossed 
the river, part of them by fording and part 
by swimming. They were exposed to all the 
fury of their enemies until the moment when 
they retreated into the woods which are on the 
other side of the river. There they were 
gathered, to the number of a hundred and 
fifty. From more than two thousand gun-shots 
that had been fired at them only thirty were 
killed including the women and children, and 
fourteen were wounded. The English did not 
attempt to pursue the fugitives; they were 
content with burning and pillaging the village; 
they set fire to the church after a base profan- 
tion of the sacred vessels and of the adorable 
body of Jesus Christ. 

The precipitate retreat of the enemy per- 
mitted the return of the Narrantsouakians to 
the village. The very next day they visited the 
wreck of their cabins, while the women on 
their part, sought for roots and plants available 
for treating the wounded. Their first care 
was to weep over the body of their holy mis- 



The Death of Father Rale 233 

sionary they found it pierced by hundreds of 
bullets, the scalp torn off, the skull broken by 
blows of a hatchet, the mouth and the eyes 
filled with mud, the bones of the legs broken, 
and all the members mutilated. This sort 
of inhumanity, practised on a body deprived 
of feeling and of life, can scarcely be attributed 
to any one but to the savage allies of the English. 

After these devout Christians had washed 
and kissed many times the honored remains 
of their father, they buried him in the very 
place where, the day before, he had celebrated 
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass— that is, in the 
place where the altar had stood before the 
burning of the church. 

By such a precious death did the apostolic 
man finish, on the 23rd day of August in that 
year, a course of thirty-seven years spent in the 
arduous labors of this mission. He was in the 
sixty-seventh year of his life. His fasting and 
his continual hard work had at the last weak- 
ened his constitution; he had walked with some 
difificulty for about nineteen years, owing to the 
effects of a fall by which he broke at the sarne 
time the right hip and the left leg. Then it 
happened, since the callous was growing wrong 
at the place of fracture, that it became necessary 
to break the left leg again. At the time when 
it was most violently struck, he bore that 
painful operation with an extraordinary firm- 
ness and an admirable tranquility. Our 
physician, who was present, appeared so aston- 
ished at this that he could not refrain from 
saying: "Ah, my Father, let at least a few 
groans escape, you have so much cause for 
them' " 

The reverend writer then proceeds to pronounce 
a well deserved panegyric upon Father Rale, speaking 
of his talents, his saintly character and the results he 
accomplished. His closing words are: "He is in con- 



234^ The Makers of Maine 

sequence, universally regretted. No one doubts that 
he was sacrificed through hatred to his ministry and 
zeal in establishing the true faith in the hearts of the 
savages. This is the opinion of Monsieur de Bellemont, 
Superior of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice at Montreal. 
When I asked from him the customary suffrages for 
the deceased, because of our interchange of prayers, 
he replied to me, using the well-known words of Saint 
Augustine, that it was doing injustice to a martyr to. 
pray for him — Injuriam facit Martyri qui oral pro eo. 

"May it please the Lord that his blood, shed for 
such a righteous cause, may fertilize these unbelieving 
lands which have been so often watered with the blood 
of the Gospel workers who have preceded us; that it 
may render them fruitful in devout Christians, and that 
the zeal of apostolic men yet to come may be stimulated 
to gather the abimdant harvest that is being presented 
to them by so many people|still buried in the shadow 
of death. 

"In the meantime, as it belongs only to the Church 
to declare the saints, I commend him to your holy 
sacrifices and to those of all our Fathers. I hope that 
you will not forget in them who is, with much respect, 
etc.—" 

Looking back?over the history of our State from 
that time to the present, it would seem as though the 
pious wish of Father de la Chasse were prophetic, and 
that the death of Father Rale had borne fruit. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

Some Reflections Upon Cause and 
Effects in History 

In these Essays and Tales I have pursued a differ- 
ent method of dealing with histor>' from that usually 
followed by historical writers. The method commonly 
pursued is to treat at considerable length and with 
much detail the history of the great and important 
battles between the English and the French which had 
for their object the determining of which flag should 
finally triumph; and to consider as subordinate the 
many smaller and less conspicuous events which pre- 
ceded and led up to the great battles. The battles 
which resulted in the fall of Louisberg and Quebec are, 
in most histories, the important events, and the rela- 
tion and description of these battles occupy the most 
prominent position in the historical narrative. 

In these Essays and Tales I have made much of 
what seems, at first sight, to be the little things, the 
minor events. But my reason is that, in my view of 
history, these little things, these minor events, which 
precede and lead up to the greater events, the deciding 
battles, often contain the germs of the great events 
and show the causes and reasons of the great events. 

The fall of Louisberg is an important event in the 
history of our country; it is one of the deciding battles 
of all history, not so momentous as the fall of Quebec, 
but doubtless as important, for it foreshadowed the 
fall of Quebec. Yet, to my view of history, the causes 



236 The Makers of Maine 

that led up to Louisberg's fate are more important 
and far more interesting than the actual siege 
and battle. 

I have told in detail the story of the life of Father 
Rale at Norridgewock and his sad death at the hands 
of the English, quoting from his writings in order that 
there might be no question as to the accuracy of the 
relation. The death of Father Rale had an important 
influence on the course of history, and from it we can 
trace one of the causes of the loss of Louisberg to the 
French. His death had a demoralizing effect upon 
the Abenaki Indians of Maine, who were the friends 
of the French, and it had consequently a dispiriting 
effect upon the French themselves in Acadia. It was 
not, as English writers would have us believe, that 
Father Rale inspired the Abenakis to fight the English; 
indeed, the veiy writers who make that charge, in al- 
most the same breath tell us that the Abenakis were 
not a fight-loving, warlike race like most of the other 
tribes. The truth is that Father Rale lent his moral 
influence to the just claims of the Abenakis to resist 
unjust oppression at the hands of the English; but he 
never inspired them to attack the English. But as 
long as he lived, his influence was a strong force in 
keeping the Abenakis courageous to defend their rights 
against the encroachments of the English who were 
steadily striving to push them back and to get their 
lands away from them. So long as the Abenakis were 
able to defend themselves against the English encroach- 
ments, the weak and scattered French settlers in that 
part of Acadia which is now Maine were also able to 
hold their own. 

John Fiske, the historian, held this view of the 
history of this period, and he expressed it in these 
words: — 



Some Reflections 237 

"This contest over the Kennebec River was typi- 
cal of the whole struggle between the French and the 
English. On the one hand, there was the steadily 
advancing front of the self-governing and greatly thriv- 
ing agricultural community; on the other hand, there 
was the little group of French noblemen and priests 
governing a mere handful of settlers, and striving to 
keep back the advancing English by means of diplo- 
matic control over barbarous Indians. It was a strug- 
gle which could really have but one issue. It was a 
struggle, moreover, that was conducted without pity 
or mercy, with scarcely a pretense of regard for the 
amenities of civilized warfare. Neither side was par- 
ticularly scrupulous, while from that day to this, each 
side has kept up a terrible outcrv against the other 
for doing the very same thing which it did itself. From 
that day to this, English writers have held up their 
hands in holy horror at the atrocious conduct of the 
French in sending savages to burn villages and massacre 
women and children on the English border. Yet was 
it not an English governor of New York who in 1689 
launched the Iroquois thunderbolt against Canada, 
one of the most frightful Indian incursions known to 
history? It does not appear that the conscience of 
either Puritan or Catholic was in the slightest degree 
disturbed by these horrors. Each felt sure that he was 
fighting the Devil, and thought it quite proper to fight 
him with his own weapons." (Fiske's Historical 
Writings, Vol. IX, "New France and New England," 
Page 239.) 

When John Fiske admits that it was the English 
governor of New York who instigated the frightful 
Iroquois invasion and massacre, he is doing a good deal, 
for a historian of the prejudiced class that I have men- 
tioned. But unfortunately, he feels constrained to 



238 The Makers of Maine 

counterbalance this admission with a blow of preju- 
dice against the Jesuit Father Rale, in the next breath. 
He proceeds to say: — 

"On the Kennebec frontier the problem for New 
France was to prevent English villages and fortresses 
from advancing in that direction, and the most obvious 
way of accomplishing the result was to instigate the 
Indians to acts of warfare. This was the avowed policy 
of Vaudreuil, and it was carried out by Father Rale to 
the best of his ability. When he found that his Nor- 
ri.dgewock Indians were timid, and inclined to peace, 
he sent to Montreal and caused parties of warriors 
from divers tribes, Ottawas, Caughnawagas, Hurons, 
and others, to be sent to the Kennebec River, where 
all engaged in a frantic war dance, and quite carried 
away the Norridgewocks in a frenzy of bloodthirsty 
enthusiasm. This was in 1721. Then J_began the 
sickening tale so many times repeated in early Am- 
erican history, — the tale of burning homes, of youth 
and beauty struck down by the tomahawk, and of 
captives led away through the gloom of the forest to 
meet a fiery death. Thus in turn, the English govern- 
ment at Boston was confronted with its problems; how 
to put a stop to these horrors without bringing on a 
new war with France. The practical New England 
mind saw that the principal hotbed of all the mischief 
must be destroyed, and if a Frenchman or two should 
come to grief in the process, it was his own fault for 
playing so recklessly with fire." 

How cheerfully Prof. Fiske looks upon the death 
of "a Frenchman or two," (meaning, of course. Father 
Rale, or any other Jesuit who happened to stand in 
the way of the English advance.) How cheerfully, 
compared with "the sickening tale" of English who were 
killed by the Abnaki. 



Some Reflections 239 

A little farther on Prof. Fiske in a few words tells 
the story of the English expedition ^which surprised the 
Abenaki village of Norridgewock, and murdered Fath- 
er Rale. And he says: "In the course of the fight 
Father Rale was shot through the head. Puritan 
writers have sought to stigmatize this interesting man 
as a murderer, while Catholics have praised him ,'as a 
martyr. In the impartial light of history, he was 
neither one nor the other. He was true to his own sense 
of duty, and the worst that can be said about him is 
that he was not exceptionally scrupulous in his choice 
of political and military means; while on the other hand, 
the title of 'martyr' seems hardly to belong to a man 
who was killed in the ordinary course of battle, not 
because of his religious faith, but because he was 
fighting in the service of France." 

If Prof. Fiske's historical work is "the light of 
History," then history is in a sad way. One would 
naturally expect that Fiske would cite strong historical 
authority for the above statement about Father Rale. 
To state that a missionary priest was fighting, and not 
even fighting for his religious faith, but actually fight- 
ing for the cause of France, that is, that he was not a 
non-combatant, as a priest or minister is supposed to 
be by the laws of all nations, but was engaged in battle 
as an active combatant, would naturally require very 
good original historical authority. But for his auth- 
ority, Prof. Fiske cites Parkman's "Half Century of 
Conflict." That is to say, — one prejudiced writer 
cites another prejudiced writer as authority for his 
prejudices. If this is not a case of the blind leading 
the blind in historical writing, then no other such ex- 
ample can be found in all the pages of history. 

It is enough to say once more, that the best histori- 
cal authority, the "Relations of the Jesuits" proves 



240 The Makers of Maine 

beyond question that Father Rale was slain, while 
unarmed and unresisting, by the English soldiers, 
and afterwards his body was mutilated almost beyond 
recognition by the Indian allies of the English, without 
the slightest effort having been made by the English 
to prevent this outrage. 

To return to our first proposition, — that the death 
of Father Rale and the dispersion of the Abenakis 
and the weakening of the French settlements in Maine 
and Acadia, which followed upon the death of Rale, 
had an influence leading to the fall of Louisberg. 
The facts and circumstances which the course of history 
shows were the causes of important results, are, or 
ought to be, of more interest to the historian than the 
mere chronicling of the results themselves. 

Thus, we are able to trace the great change of the 
sovereignity of this soil, from France to England, back 
to the attack upon the Indian village of Norridgewock 
and the death of Father Rale; and further again, back 
to the "Argall Outrage," wherein the English Captain, 
Argall, who was little better than a pirate, attacked the 
newly founded French settlement of St. Sauveur, at, 
or near Mount Desert Island, killed the Jesuit Du 
Thet, captured as prisoners Fathers Biard and Mass6, 
and dispersed the French colonists and broke up the 
settlement. For, doubtless, if the St. Sauveur settle- 
ment had been let alone by the English and allowed 
to exist and prosper, as it had a moral and legal right 
to do, under the laws of all nations, the French would 
have become so strong in Maine, that they never could 
have been dislodged by the English, Louisberg would 
not have been taken, and Quebec would not have fallen, 
and finally the arms of France would have remained 
triumphant in this part of the world and the French 



Some Reflections . 241 

flag would still wave over what is now British soil 
and even over much that is now American. 

But these are idle speculations. Let us return to 
our history and our facts. Let us consider what was 
the situation of the French after the death of Father 
Rale. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

The Fall of Louisberg and the Part Taken 
Herein by the Men of Maine 

Louisberg was situated on Cape Breton Island in 
a commanding position and a strategic location. It 
had been named Louisberg for the French King. In 
the year 1720 the French began a system of fortifica- 
tions at this place which, when they were finally com- 
pleted, made it one of the Gibraltars of the World. 

Louisberg occupied a central position with refer- 
ence to Quebec, France, and the West Indies. It 
stood in the way of an attack upon Quebec, and was a 
base of supplies for the French. In 1744 France and 
England were once more involved in war. Governor 
Shirley of the Massachusetts Colony conceived the pro- 
ject of making a sudden attack on Louisberg. It is 
said that the project was suggested to him by William 
Vaughan, a son of the Vaughan who had been lieuten- 
ant governor of New Hampshire. Francis Parkman 
in his "Half Century of Conflict," calls it "a mad 
scheme." The Legislature, with great reluctance, auth- 
orized the attack, and New Hampshire, Rhode Island, 
and Connecticut joined in the undertaking. Gov. 
Shirley selected a Maine man, William Pepperell of 
Kittery, to command the expedition. He was not 
much of a military man, but made up for his lack of 
military knowledge by considerable energy. As it 
turned out, his very energy, precipitate indeed, was 
the means of his success in an undertaking at which 



The Fall of Louisberg 243 

perhaps a better informed military man would have 
hesitated, and failed. The French were taken by 
surprise, not expecting so sudden an attack. 

On May 1st, 1745, the English forces made a land- 
ing at Louisberg, and with laudable energy and de- 
termination, as compared with the French defense, 
almost at once captured what was called the "Grand 
Battery," which mounted thirty heavy guns. The 
French made no real defense at this point, practically 
abandoning the battery without resistance. This loss 
sealed their doom, for the English were able to turn 
the heavy guns of the battery upon the town. If the 
French had held out here and made a good and stubborn 
defense at the point of the Grand Battery, they would 
probably have held Louisberg successfully, for the 
English force was not really adequate to the achieve- 
ment. 

But what is more interesting to us is the part taken 
by the Englishmen of Maine in this expedition. A 
debt of gratitude will always be due Dr. Henry S. Bur- 
rage, D. D., Maine State Historian, for his learned and 
interesting book, published in 1910, — "Maine at Louis- 
berg." He has there perpetuated for future genera- 
tions the story of the part taken by the Maine men in 
the victory over the French at Louisberg. Besides 
the commander of the expedition, William Pepperell, 
whose home was in Kittery, the men of Maine raised 
three regiments, numbering 2855 in all. Three com- 
panies of Maine men from Waldo's regiment were 
among the first in the attacking party which captured 
the Grand Battery. 

It is one of the marvels of the history of warfare 
that Louisberg was taken so easily, and at so little 
cost. The loss of the English troops was only one 
hundred and thirty men. Burrage, in his history men- 



244 The Makers of Maine 

tioned above, says: "As Pepperell on entering the 
town viewed the magnitude and strength of the de- 
fenses, he exclaimed, 'The Almighty of a truth has 
been with us.' 

I will also quote these significant and true words 
of Burrage: "But if the provincial soldiers were not 
enriched by the spoils of Louisberg, they received 
during their service there many exceedingly valuable 
lessons. Best of all they learned the power of united 
action in the execution of some great purpose. It was 
the victory at Louisberg that inspired them with the 
resolve to bring to a speedy end French influence and 
French dominion on this continent. Many of the 
men from Maine, as elsewhere in New England, who 
served at Louisberg, served also in the armies that a few 
years later at Lake George drove the advancing French 
forces back to their strongholds on the St. Lawrence, to 
be finally overcome by Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham 
in 1759. Some of thein, and many of their sons, were 
among the first to respond to the Lexington Alarm in 
1775. The drums that were heard at Louisberg were 
heard at Bunker Hill, and on other battlefields of the 
Revolution. The Louisberg expedition was a school 
for the New England militia. Moreover it brought 
the provinces into close and harmonious relations, and 
developed that power which was at length mani- 
fested in the great struggle, which was finally won at 
Yorktown, and which made the United Colonies the 
United States." 

Those words are the truth; and it is interesting to 
see that Dr. Burrage takes that view of history which 
enables the reader to see the relation of cause and effect, 
and to see that every event in history must be regarded, 
not as individual and unconnected, but as forming links 
in a connected chain. And even the most insignificant 



The Fall of Loeisburg 245 

and unimportant happening is like the dropping of a 
pebble into a mill-pond, — its influence is felt to the 
most extreme limits. 

The taking of Louisberg in 1745 always seems to 
me a more interesting event than the second capture 
in 1758. The credit of the first belongs to the New 
England colonists, that of the second to General Wolfe, 
that youthful general who was later to win imperish- 
able glory by his victory over Montcalm and his death 
in the arms of victory. 

By the treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, which closed the 
war between France and England, which on this side 
of the ocean had resulted in the fall of Louisberg in 
1745, Louisberg was restored to France. Thirteen 
years was, however, the length of time that France 
was able to hold it. Its loss seems to have been fated. 
But during these thirteen years the French had increas- 
ed the armaments and strengthened the fortifications. 
So, once more, when the English set out to capture 
the place, the undertaking seemed foolhardy, as it had 
seemed the first time. This time, it was the genius 
and dash of Wolfe which brought success to the arms 
of England. He made a landing of his detachment 
of the English attacking army at a point at the extreme 
west, while other detachments under Admiral Bos- 
cawen, and General Amherst, who was in command 
of the land forces, landed and attacked the French at 
other points. If Wolfe had failed, however, the whole 
attack would probably have failed. But he succeeded 
in cutting between the left flank of the French £orces 
and the town, thus cutting the French army off. Then 
he marched around past the famous "Grand Battery," 
and drove the French from a part of the works. In 
the meantime, the English ships, which outnumbered 
the French kept up such a murderous fire upon the 



246 THE Makers of Maine 

fortifications and the town, that after some days of 
fighting, the French ships were all destroyed, except 
one which was taken as a prize, and the forts and town 
so badly burnt by the bombs of the English that noth- 
ing was left for the French but to surrender Louisberg 
once again, and this for the last time. 

As I have said, however, this second taking of 
Louisberg never seems so interesting an event in history 
as the first; and moreover, from the point of view of 
one who feels most interest in the exploits of the 
colonists, the credit for this capture belongs to England 
rather than to the colonists. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
LOOKING Backward 

It was Charles Lever, I believe, who wrote in the 
preface to one of his novels of life in Ireland in the 
beginning of the 19th century, that, in his opinion, an 
author should write his preface as a conclusion to his 
book, to be read and considered, after the book had been 
fully assimilated. I do not, believe however, that the 
thought was original to Lever. 

I desire to call the reader's attention to the prop- 
ositions which I started in beginning this series of 
Essays. And it is for the reason that I believe that 
I have fully demonstrated the truth of my proposition 
that I am now concluding. 

I have not written a history of Maine from the 
earliest explorations down to any particular period. 
There are many more interesting events in the history 
of Maine which I might treat of, but to do so would 
result in losing sight of my purpose, and to change a 
series of essays into a poorly digested history. In 
other words, to confess to my discerning readers that 
I had failed as an essayist by attempting to cover my 
retreat with the filched mantle of the historian. 

No, I feel that I can safely stop here, without 
trying to stir the reader's heart with a narrative of the 
fall of Quebec, and the momentous changes in the 
history of this continent which that event brought 
about. Let the memory of the heroic deeds of the 



248 THE MAKERS OF MAINE 

brave and modest Wolf, who quoted "Grey's Elegy" 
on the eve of a great battle; let the memory of the chiv- 
alrous defense of his adversary, Montcalm, rest with 
the able and eloquent words of the many historians, 
English and the French, who have preserved the his- 
tory of this period for posterity. I have no desire to 
pit myself against them. Nor is it necessary to my 

purpose. 

I have brought the reader down to the eve of the 
great change of sovereignty, in this part of the world, 
that settled forever the question of English or French 
supremacy in Maine; that settled forever the fate and 
destiny of the Indian races, that brought about the 
condition of human affairs in the colonies bordering the 
Atlantic which gave birth to an English-speaking, free 
and independent nation. 

I have tried to sketch a picture of a period, and a 
series of conditions, in the history of our state; and in 
doing it, I believe I have experienced something of the 
feeling which the artist must have, in despairing of his 
attempt to reproduce the elifects of nature with his 
limitations of color and canvas; for that period was a 
time not only of romantic interest, but a period of 
history to understand which, and to explain which, 
demands the best efforts of the profoundly philosophic 

mind. 

Let me illustrate: I said in the first chapter that 
the opportunity was offered here to the white man to 
give to the world an example of Christian charity and 
liberality, and that it was lost by his selfishness. I 
have tried to make it plain that the events of history, 
considered even in the light of the philosophy of the 
greatest good to the greatest number, show that, how- 
ever the English race may have excelled in empire 
building, it has failed signally in that it has not accom- 



Looking Backward 249 

pHshed the greatest good that it might, and ought 
to have accomplished with the opportunities it had. 

I began early in the series to show by quotations 
from the writings of the first explorers, from Jacques 
Cartier, from Samuel de Champlain, from Marc Les- 
carbot, and from others, that the Indians were naturally 
a friendly race, easily inclined to adopt the Christian 
religion, and the virtues of Christian civilization. The 
French, made them allies by friendly treatment. We 
have seen that the Indian speaks frequently of "my 
brother, the Frenchman." The English made them 
implacable enemies by brutal treatment. 

Quotations from the Protestant historians, Ban- 
croft, and Francis Parkman, have borne out my con- 
tentions on the foregoing points. 

We have, during the course of these chapters, 
followed the footsteps of the Jesuit missionaries, 
from Biard and Masse down to Sabastian Rale. I 
do not want to recapitulate now the facts that I have 
proved by quotations from the writings of those great 
Jesuits, as I think they are too fresh in the readers' 
memory. But, I will recall the fact that I have proved 
that history shows that many important events of 
great interest to Catholics have happened in Maine. 
For instance, the first consecrated host made from 
wheat grown on American soil was made by Father 
Biard, S. J., in the fall of the year 1611 at Port Royal, 
Which, as I have shown was in Acadia, which at that 
time, by consent of all nations, included nearly all of 
what is now Maine. Also, the first Mass celebrated 
in Maine took place in October 1611 on an island in 
the lower Kennebec. Also, the first martyr was Brother 
Gilbert du Thet, who was killed by the English under 
Argall at St. Sauveur. 

I think it is plain to all fair minded readers that 



250 The Makers of Maine 

history clearly demonstrates that the title of France 
to the soil of what is now Maine was better 
than the title of England. But the reader will re- 
member that early in these essays I quoted from the 
writings of Father Biard some expressions which show 
that he, in the year 1616, foresaw the downfall of 
French supremacy, deducing it from what he had seen 
about him in Acadia. A part of his words are these: 
"I shall only suggest that it is great folly for small 
companies to go there, who picture to themselves 
Baronies, and I know not what great fiefs and demesnes, 
for three or four thousand ecus for example, which 
they will have to sink in that country," 

But however sure we may be that truth and jus- 
tice were on the side of the French claim to the title of 
Maine, Fate has spoken its last word, and victory ul- 
timately perched upon the banner of England. Un- 
reflecting people, blinded by what they believe is pa- 
triotism, say, — "how fortunate it was that the arms 
of England were triumphant, and the question of French 
or English supremacy on this continent was settled as 
it was at Quebec." It seems to me, on the other hand, 
strange that anyone should so regard the result. Was 
there anything backward about the French civilization 
that the pioneers of France in the New World, those 
men whose daily lives read likeja romance, could not 
have led the forward march of the world's civilization as 
safely and as wisely as the stern New England Puritan 
and the leisure loving Southern country-gentleman? 
In one matter alone, to say nothing of anything else, 
can there be any doubt that a different fate would have 
befallen the Indian tribes if their welfare and their 
future had been in the care of the French governors 
and legislators, who treated them as friends and broth- 



LOOKING Backward 261 

ers, and of the Jesuit Fathers, who treated them as 
human beings with a soul to save? 

But only in imagination now can we picture to 
ourselves what might have been the future of Maine 
once a part of old Acadia, had the noble and ambitious 
plans of the pioneers of France, of Champlain, de Monts, 
Frontenac, been permitted to be accomplished. Only 
in imagination can we figure to ourselves what govern- 
ment, what laws, what customs, would be ours to-day. 
But such dreams are only for antiquarians and students 
of history, whose hearts are bound up in the lost past. 
To him who studies history to apply the lessons of the 
past to the problems of the present, such dreams are 
idle. The State of Maine stands to-day, at the open- 
ing of the twentieth century, with a great history be- 
hind her, and the promise of a happy and prosperous 
future before her. The bitterness and hatred of re- 
ligious quarrels are dead and almost forgotten. But 
the more our people know of their proud history, in 
the great days of the making of Maine, the more fa- 
miliar and better acquainted they become with the 
names and deeds of the men who were the Makers of 
Mcdne; the better citizens and more loyal sons of Maine 
will they be, for they will then know that their State 
has a right to her proud motto, — "Dirigo," and that 
it is their duty to preserve and maintain her right to 
lead in the future, as she lead long ago in the making 
of our western world. 



The End 



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